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WEATHER

Italy issues fines for water wastage amid northern drought

After a dry winter, people in northern Italy are facing water shortages and fines for wastage amid a severe drought in the region.

Italy issues fines for water wastage amid northern drought
A tree trunk is pictured on the river bed of the river Po in Motteggiana, northern Italy, which has been affected by a significant lack of rain during the winter months. Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP

Mayors of towns across northern regions of Italy are turning to measures rationing drinkig water supplies and fining residents for wasting resources as water remains scarce.

Months of dry weather has led to a drought in northern Italy and the Po River basin in particular, with no relief in sight, according to a new weather study.

Italy overall has experienced one of its driest winters in 65 years with rainfall 80 percent lower than the seasonal average, according to data from the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection (Agenzia regionale per la protezione dell’Ambiente).

Italy’s longest river, the northern-located Po river, is now at its lowest level in winter since 1972.

As a result, municipalities across the northern region have been forced to cut off water supplies at certain times of the day and limit water to essential reasons.

The regions mainly affected are Piedmont, Liguria, Emilia Romagna, Lombardy and Alto-Adige, which have turned to rationing measures.

READ ALSO: From Venice to Mont Blanc, how is the climate crisis affecting Italy?

Entire communities have issued ordinances, asking citizens not to waste water and forbid its use for purposes other than food and hygiene.

Fines between around €51 to €258 are in place in Varallo, Piedmont, for those not following the rules, reported Italian newspaper La Corriere della Sera.

In Bajardo, a village in the coastal region of Liguria, the authorities have turned off the taps between 8pm and 8am.

The town’s mayor, Francesco Laura, said he had no other choice.

“The springs have dried up. Mountain water no longer arrives and in the village the little that comes from taps is used for cooking and washing,” he told newspaper La Stampa.

Scientists warn that severe droughts can be expected more frequently amid human-caused climate change.

Italy’s winter drought followed record temperatures last summer, in which Sicily is believed to have recorded the highest ever temperature in Europe at 48.8C.

Italy then faced months of storms, record rainfall and flooding before plunging into a dry winter.

The European Commission’s Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) reported that there has been a constant lack of rain since December 2021.

Member comments

  1. Meanwhile, here on the east coast of Australia we have had our wettest ever summer. Extreme floods and landslides. Crazy times.

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WEATHER

Mystery sonic boom rattles Italy’s Elba island

An unidentified sonic boom heard on the Italian island of Elba and in Corsica on Thursday may have been a meteorite, experts have said.

Mystery sonic boom rattles Italy’s Elba island

The town of Campo nell’Elba, on the Italian tourist island of Elba, 10 kilometres off Tuscany’s coast, said on its Facebook page that a nearby tracking station had “captured a seismic, acoustic event felt by everyone” at 4:30pm.

Corsican media reports said it was also felt on the island.

Tuscany’s president Eugenio Giani initially said it was an earthquake, before backtracking after Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) ruled it out.

The Italian Air Force told Giani it had nothing to do with the sonic boom.

“The type of event which caused the tremor, felt by many as an earthquake over the entire coast of Tuscany and in some inland areas, is currently unconfirmed,” Giani wrote on social media.

The region’s Geophysics Institute and the University of Florence said in a joint statement that whatever caused the boom was travelling at 400 miles per second.

“A meteorite entering the atmosphere seems the most likely and in line with the data registered”.

The Corriere della Sera daily quoted an unnamed person from Italy’s civil protection agency saying “the impact would have been registered by seismographs. The most likely hypothesis is still an airplane”.

It is not the first time mysterious sonic booms have been registered on Elba, the Corriere della Sera said. Similar events in 2012, 2016 and 2023 have yet to be explained, it said.

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