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WEATHER

Drought-hit Verona introduces restrictions on using drinking water

The city of Verona, in northeast Italy, announced at the weekend restrictions on the use of drinking water, due to an ongoing drought in the Mediterranean country.

Drought-hit Verona introduces restrictions on using drinking water
A fisherman stands on dry sands at the confluence between the Ticino and Po River at Ponte della Becca, near Linarolo, south of Pavia, on June 17, 2022. - 125 towns in the regions of Piedmont and Lombardy have been asked to ration water amid the worst drought to affect northern Italy’s rivers in 70 years. (Photo by Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP)

“Due to the weather situation and its impact on the water supply, the mayor has signed an order restricting the use of drinking water for domestic purposes,” read a message on the city’s website.

Under the drought order, which lasts until the end of August in the town of quarter of a million people, it will be prohibited to use drinking water to water gardens or sports fields.

The water must also not be used to wash cars or fill swimming pools, with a breach of the rules punishable with a fine of up to 500 euros ($520) in the town famous as the home of the ill-starred lovers Romeo and Juliet.

Municipalities across Italy have begun introducing some form of water rationing after an unusually hot and dry spring sparked widespread alarm.

The Po river, Italy’s longest river and its largest reservoir of fresh water, is suffering its worst drought in 70 years.

The Maggiore and Garda lakes are both far lower than usual for this time of year, while further south, the level of the River Tiber that runs through Rome has also dropped.

Last week, the mayor of Milan announced the northern Italian city’s fountains would be switched off as part of water restrictions imposed due to the drought.

Italy’s largest agricultural association, Coldiretti, has warned that the drought is putting over 30 percent of national agricultural production and half of livestock farming in the Po Valley at risk.

The northern region of Lombardy has called a state of emergency, directing mayors to curtail non-essential water use, such as street washing and watering parks and sportsgrounds.

The weather conditions have also hit Italy’s hydroelectric plants.

Hydropower facilities, mostly located in the mountains in the country’s north, provide almost one fifth of Italy’s energy demands.

But the lack of rain is causing problems, at a time when Rome is desperately trying to wean itself off its dependence on Russian gas due to the war in Ukraine.

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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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