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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘We want water’: Sicilians protest against shortages

Hundreds of Sicilians on Friday protested against water shortages and poor water management amid a crushing drought that's been gripping the Italian island for months.

Published: 3 August 2024 08:22 CEST
A picture shows the low level of water at Pergusa lake due to drought, on February 26, 2024 near Enna, Sicily
A picture shows the low level of water at Pergusa lake due to drought, on February 26, 2024 near Enna, Sicily. Sicilians protested on Friday against water shortages and poor water management on the Italian island. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)

People in the city of Agrigento, Sicily, demonstrated to draw the attention of local authorities, holding a banner reading “we want water” and shouting “shame, shame” and “water is a right for all, water is a fundamental right”.

The march organisers stressed that “the population is exhausted by constant water shortages and the ineffective management of water resources” on the drought-affected island.

“The water situation in the city and in the province has become unbearable, with frequent cuts and unsustainable rationing,” the group said in a statement.

Agrigento, a city of 55,000 on Sicily’s southern coast, is best-known for its Valley of the Temples, an important UNESCO World Heritage archeological site housing well-preserved Greek temples.

Sicilian officials at an emergency meeting on Friday adopted measures that should increase the amount of water available in Agrigento by 20 percent in the next 10 days, according to news agency Ansa.

READ ALSO: ‘There’s no hope’: How a months-long drought is devastating Sicily

Agrigento’s Archdiocese on Friday denounced the “inadequate water supply” and asked for “urgent and effective emergency solutions”.

The Italian government in early May declared a state of emergency for the southern island, unblocking funds to purchase water tanker trucks, drill wells and renovate pumping and desalination stations.

Once the breadbasket of ancient Rome, Sicily is expected this year to see its wheat harvest collapse by more than 50 percent, according to agricultural lobby Coldiretti.

Meanwhile, 5,800 hectares (14,000 acres) of agricultural land have gone up in flames since the beginning of July due to wildfires fanned by the dry conditions, the group said.

The effects of the drought are exacerbated by a lack of investment in infrastructure to prevent water from being wasted, Coldiretti said.

According to Italy’s National Institute of Statistics (Istat), Sicily has one of the country’s highest rates of wasted drinking water, with 51.6 percent of water lost from distribution networks in 2022.

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DROUGHT

Climate change intensifies Sicily and Sardinia droughts: study

Climate change is intensifying the droughts plaguing the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia, making them 1.5 times more likely to occur, according to a study released by the World Weather Attribution research group on Wednesday.

Published: 4 September 2024 09:01 CEST
Climate change intensifies Sicily and Sardinia droughts: study

Hot and dry summers are nothing new on the Italian islands, but both have seen exceptionally low rainfall and persistently high temperatures over the past 12 months, triggering devastating droughts.

Rivers have dried up, crops have withered and drinking water has been rationed in a part of Italy where agriculture and tourism are crucial, forcing both Sicily and Sardinia to declare a state of emergency.

The declarations prompted the interest of the WWA, a network of scientists who have pioneered peer-reviewed methods for assessing the possible role of climate change in specific extreme events.

“Human-caused climate change has increased the likelihood of the droughts driving crippling water shortages and agricultural losses in Sardinia and Sicily by 50 percent,” the study found.

In Sicily, the second half of 2023 was marked by “an unprecedented dry spell, being the most arid period in over a century”, it noted.

READ ALSO: Harvest starts early in Sicily’s vineyards amid crushing drought

But it said a key driver of the drought was not so much a lack of rainfall but the continued high temperatures, which have remained stifling this summer, even at night.

Dried-up lemons lie on the ground in a lemon field in Campobello di Mazara, southwest Sicily, in August 2024

Dried-up lemons lie on the ground in a lemon field in Campobello di Mazara, southwest Sicily, in August 2024. Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP

“We conclude that this increase in drought severity is primarily driven by the very strong increase in extreme temperatures due to human-induced climate change,” the study said.

“Searing, long-lasting heat is hitting the islands more frequently, evaporating water from soils, plants and reservoirs,” said Mariam Zachariah, a researcher at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London.

“Sardinia and Sicily are becoming increasingly arid with climate change,” she said.

“For the farmers and the towns that have endured months of water restrictions, this study is confirmation – climate change is intensifying the droughts.”

READ ALSO: Rainwater dumped into sea in drought-hit Sicily

The study noted that ageing infrastructure was worsening water shortages, calling for better water management to help lessen the impact of future droughts.

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