Paris, Madrid, Rome The inhabitants of Verona face a fine of 500 euros if they water their flowers with drinking water. Until the end of August, no cars may be washed or pools filled with the scarce commodity.
The city of 250,000 in northern Italy is radically intervening in the lives of its citizens in order to get through the drought crisis. It hasn’t rained in Verona and the surrounding area for weeks, and the Po Valley – normally one of the most fertile strips in the country – has dried out more than it has in 70 years.
According to the Coldiretti agricultural association, half of livestock farming is threatened, and nationwide 30 percent of agricultural production could fall victim to the heat. There is a risk of billions in damage. In the case of grain, the crop failures could add up to a good third.
It’s even worse for the rice farmers, whose fields should actually have been flooded right now: 50 percent of the rice produced in the EU is grown in the Po Valley. Harvest losses of up to 70 percent are expected here.
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A total of six regions in the north of the country have declared a water emergency. The water levels of Lake Garda, Lake Como and Lake Maggiore have dropped, and wells have been turned off in Venice and Milan.
Italy is not the only country currently affected by the heat. New drought records are also being measured in southern France, Spain and Portugal, and states of emergency are being declared. The number of fires increases. What do the states want to do to get drought and water wastage under control in the long term?
Two-thirds of Spain is threatened with devastation
After the winter, Spain’s water reserves were at their lowest level since 1995. Rainfall from October to March was 40 percent below historical levels. The government approved drought aid for agriculture back in March.
In Calera de León, in the Extremadura region on the border with Portugal, the swimming pools have remained empty this year. In nearby Ribera del Fresno, residents complain that their water is already cloudy and brown because the reservoir is almost empty. By the end of June there were around 250 major fires in Spain, which destroyed a total of almost 82,000 hectares of forest – almost as much as in the entire previous year.
Even if this year is extreme, it is part of a climate trend that poses enormous challenges for the countries in southern Europe: “All scientific studies assume that the amount of precipitation will fall by around 20 percent by 2030,” says Spain’s Minister of Agriculture Luis Planas the Handelsblatt. The government expects two-thirds of the country to be at risk of becoming a desert. “We will have to prepare for extreme scenarios,” warned Minister for Ecological Transition Teresa Ribera. Today you have to “prepare for scenarios of flooding or maximum drought”.
There have been 250 major fires across the country since the end of June.
(Photo: ddp/ZUMA)
In April, the government presented a first draft for a new national strategy: Among other things, a national council to combat desertification and plans for the regeneration of areas that are particularly threatened are planned.
>>Read here: What does the weather emergency in northern Italy mean for vacationers?
Concrete measures are the sustainable management of the forests and an improvement in the irrigation systems. Experts complain that more than 20 percent of the water is currently lost during transport. However, Agriculture Minister Planas assures: “Together with Israel, we are the country with one of the most technically advanced irrigation systems.”
The Spanish government will invest 2.1 billion euros in the modernization of the plants over the next five years. These primarily include systems for so-called drip irrigation. The water only flows drop by drop directly over the plant. This is considered to be particularly efficient because hardly any liquid is lost.
Tooth brushing ban in southern France
In France, too, large fires have been spreading in the south of the country for a few days and have put the population on alert. A premature heatwave – May temperatures were the highest on record – dried up water sources in some villages, and tankers are now supplying them.
The government in Paris has a four-stage emergency plan for the drought. Measures have already been taken in various departments to save water: like in Verona, Italy, it has been forbidden for weeks to wash your car with drinking water, water the vegetable garden or fill up the pool. In Villars-sur-Var near Nice, people should no longer drink tap water, cook with it, or even brush their teeth. Residents are given bottled water instead. Showers are turned off on Mediterranean beaches. Many communities have banned golf courses from being irrigated.
Many of the measures are not new, but are coming particularly early this year. The tourist season is just beginning. The drought is also having an impact on travel in the country: France’s express trains have to slow down for fear of overheating and cable fires. The rails could also expand and deform, or even tear overhead lines when passing through. In nuclear power plants, there is concern about sufficient cooling.
Experts believe that many cities should take environmental measures to combat the heat. In Argèles-sur-Mer, just before the Spanish border, plants have been planted that hardly need any water. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo also wants to create more and more green spaces to replace heated asphalt.
According to figures from the National Low Water Monitoring Institute, nine percent of watercourses were already dry in June, compared to two percent in the same period last year. “This winter, the underground water supplies were not sufficiently replenished,” said Florence Denier-Pasquier, water specialist at the nature conservation association France Nature Environnement. Even rainfall in the past two weeks couldn’t change anything: the water was absorbed by the plants.
The environment ministry fears that the problems will continue to escalate in large parts of France. It is already becoming apparent that wheat production will fall by around seven percent this year. France is the EU’s largest wheat exporter. Corn production could also be affected. Scientists are calling for water consumption to be regulated and crops to be better adapted to drought. Corn, for example, could be replaced by other vegetables.
Portugal wants to use service water for golf courses
The situation in Portugal is particularly serious: there is currently a severe or extreme drought in 97 percent of the country. The population is called upon to refrain from washing cars, courtyards and streets, watering gardens or filling private pools.
Water loss in the pipes is also a major problem here. More than 35 percent were lost there, said the Vice President of the Portuguese Environment Agency António Pimenta Machado. The lines, some of which date back to the 1950s, would have to be renewed. In addition, water should be used several times – industrial water can also be used for cleaning garbage cans and streets, as well as for watering gardens.
>>Read here: No end to drought and fires in southern Europe
Industrial water is already being used to irrigate golf courses in the Algarve. “Our goal is to achieve 20 percent of water reused by 2030 for a variety of purposes, such as agriculture, which uses a lot of water, industry and urban uses, such as street cleaning,” said Environment Minister Duarte Cordeiro.
The Portuguese government is using 200 million euros from the European recovery plan to increase water efficiency. This also includes the construction of a desalination plant.
In addition, projects are to be presented in the autumn with which more water can be channeled into the river Tajo. It has its source in Spain, where so much water is often withdrawn from it that hardly anything reaches Portugal – which causes farmers to suffer.
In Italy, 40 percent of drinking water seeps away
In Italy, the pipe system is so dilapidated that on average around 40 percent of the water is lost. In the south of the country, this value is even up to 80 percent. The systems are now to be renewed with money from the EU recovery fund. New dams and reservoirs are also planned across the country to store more water during the wet months.
Italy experiences historic drought – Po river partly dried up
In the short term, the government in Rome released more than 35 million euros to compensate companies in regions that are currently particularly affected and to send trucks north with drinking water.
Apart from the economic damage, the heat wave is likely to further exacerbate social inequality, warns the European Trade Union Institute in a study. The extreme temperatures would primarily affect the low-skilled, seasonal workers and low-wage workers. In addition to jobs in agriculture, these included gardeners, hotel bellboys and, in some cases, teachers in poorly air-conditioned classrooms.
The worst major heat wave in recent history hit Europe in 2003, when around 70,000 people died. Since then, contingency plans have been drawn up, but they are aimed primarily at health systems – and not at particularly affected workers.
More: German municipalities warn of water shortages: pools could become a “real problem” in summer