A rainfall deficit of more than 50 % since the start of the year affects the whole north and the center of the country, causing an unprecedented crisis. In the Pô Delta, the flow of the river is so weak that the Adriatic sea water goes further and further inland.
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Saturday June 25, M gr Mario Delpini, Archbishop of Milan, went to the small Saint-Ambroise church of Trezzano Sul Naviglio (Lombardy). There, in the company of the priest of the parish, the mayor of the city, several dozen families and local representatives of the Coldiretti, the powerful group of local farmers, the man of the Church has collected at length, reciting the Rosary to implore the return of the rain, which would make “water and freshness to the dry earth”. The same day, the prelate went to two other parishes of agricultural zones of his diocese, particularly tested by the lack of water, to continue his prayer.
For the time being, weather forecasts in northern Italy remain desperately monotonous: blue, everywhere, and scorching temperatures, that’s all the oracles announce for the next ten days. Admittedly, there was, around June 20, a wave of scattered thunderstorms which made it possible to raise the level of rivers somewhat. In Crémone, the statements have shown that the level of the Pô was up of around twenty centimeters, but it remains dramatically low: measured at – 8.44 meters, Wednesday, it has painfully arrived, two days later, at the Catastrophic level of – 8.23 meters.
Mince water net
It is by walking from west to east the course of the largest river in the north of Italy that we perceive the extent of the drama. In Turin (Piedmont), the Pô flow was measured at 20 % of its usual level. Further east, the rice fields literally dry on foot and, in Ferrare (Emilie-Romagne), walkers can go down in the bed of the river and follow the thin net of water, which struggles to advance in the middle of an immensity of sandy soil. Downstream, the situation is even more worrying: in the Pô delta, the flow of the river is so weak that the Adriatic sea water goes further and further in the land. The phenomenon is perceptible to the naked eye, and the statements of environmental agencies in the region indicate traces of salt up to 30 kilometers upstream of the mouth of the river, a situation which is potentially devastating for the wild flora and cultivable land.
Now, the Pô plain, which concentrates a good part of national wealth – it is estimated that the river basin concentrates 40 % of Italian GDP – has always been the largest agricultural region in the country. According to the Italian Confederation of Farmers, half of the production of the area is in danger. The same source already announces a drop in production of 30 % concerning melons, and up to 50 % of losses for corn and soy.
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