2023-07-06 17:58:44
Italy enjoys a good availability of water: it is still third in Europe for availability of water resources (behind only France and Sweden), with around 130 billion m3 available each year. However, this value has decreased by 20% in recent decades: if we do not arrest the global warmingthe root cause of the reduction of water, the availability could reach to be reduced by 40% in a short time, with peaks of 90% in some areas of the South.
To sound the alarm is Italy for Climate, the Study Center of the Foundation for Sustainable Development, which analyzed the problem in the report “Too much or too little? Water in Italy, in a changing climate”. Report that highlights how our country at European level is the one with the highest levels of water stress: with almost 40 billion m3 a year, Italy is first and withdraws more than 30% of the annual water availability. This means that we are eroding our water resources and endangering ecosystems.
41% of the water withdrawn in Italy is destined for agriculture, 24% for civil use, 20% for industry and 15% for the production of electricity. We are the second European country for withdrawals for agriculture (after Spain) but advanced accounting procedures for agricultural uses have not been activated and we are not improving our performance. Italy also boasts the sad European record of water drawn for civil uses: with 9 billion m2 every year (and +70% compared to 2000). This is certainly due to the high level of losses in the national water network (which are constantly growing and have exceeded 40%), but also to one poor habit of waste reduction: an Italian consumes 220 liters of water, double the water consumed by an average European citizen. Italy is also the first European country for the use of water in industry: 4 times more than Germany and 8 times more than France.
Another alarming figure: in twenty years i Alpine glaciers in Italy they lost an average of 25 meters thick, over 50 billion m3 of ice. According to the National Plan for adaptation to climate change, if temperatures continue to increase none of the ski resorts in Friuli Venezia-Giulia would soon have sufficient natural snow cover to guarantee the season and the same would happen to a third of the resorts in Lombardy , Trentino-Alto Adige and Piedmont.
The climate crisis, in addition to the damage caused by warming and the average increase in temperatures, also causes an increase in the intensity and frequency of exceptional rainfall, such as the recent one in Emilia Romagna: in Italy phenomena of an exceptional nature have increased exponentially in recent years, to the point of exceeding the record value of 2,000 episodes a year for the first time in 2022: one Italian out of five lives in potentially floodable, while 6.9 million people, 1.1 million businesses and 4.9 million buildings are threatened by medium-high water hazards. The Regions at greatest risk of flooding in Italy they are Emilia-Romagna, followed by Veneto and Calabria and by Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, Tuscany and Lombardy. In almost all these Regions the level of overbuilding of the territory is very high.
Ten proposals
The dossier presented 10 proposals and lines of action to address this crisis:
– Update and make more effective the mitigation and adaptation measures
– Increase climate commitment: cut net emissions by 58% in 2030 (compared to 1990) and achieve climate neutrality in 2045. To do this, among other things, we must push on renewables and, among these, exploit full potential of hydroelectricity
– Adopt a Climate Law
– Improve the level of knowledge of water resources in Italy, with an updated picture of all sectors
– Renew the infrastructure and cut network losses, currently equal to 42% of the levy for civil use
– Promote a more efficient and circular use of water in agriculture
– Promote the efficient and circular use of water in industries, facilitating investments
– Check for updates to the Flood Risk Management Plans
– Valuing solutions based on nature: it is necessary that there are areas or basins of controlled flood expansion and that the rivers can expand more in their natural courses
– Enhance the role of cities: they can counteract waves and heat islands by increasing green infrastructure; they can help reduce flood risks by reducing the sealing of urban areas and car parks.
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