The dry Po turns into an expanse of algae (and Piedmont without water asks for help): I’ll show you the agony of the great river

Piedmont is dealing with a water crisis that is worsening week by week. At Isola Sant’Antonio, the historical monitoring section of the Po, the average flow rate stopped at 62 cubic meters per second: a deficit of 75% compared to historical values. A figure that illustrates the gravity of the situation, aggravated by a summer that has so far reversed the conditions of a rainy spring.

What you see along the river, in Turin

The decline is not only in Arpa numbers. On the Po, with the Turin hill and the Monte dei Cappuccini church in the background, the river has left a long stretch of the bed uncovered: islets, covered with grass and algae, emerge from the shallow water for tens of meters towards the center of the riverbed. Two people sitting on the bank observe what remains of the river: a stark contrast with the usual image of Turin on the Po, which tells more than any statistic the scale of the ongoing crisis.

Drought numbers

According to the Arpa report presented to the Regional Table for the Water Emergency, June rainfall in the Po basin stopped at 62 millimetres, 36% less than the 1991-2020 average. Surface water resources are reduced by 37%, while in the first ten days of July most hydrometric sections record deficits of more than 40%. The thermal factor also plays a role: the regional anomaly in June, +3.5°C above average, places the month among the hottest ever recorded, close to the records of 2003. The heat wave at the end of May also accelerated evapotranspiration, aggravating the water stress of soils and vegetation.

@Laura Valentini

Municipal ordinances and request for help

There are over one hundred Piedmontese municipalities that have already adopted ordinances to limit the use of water for gardens, swimming pools and car washing: 71 in the Alessandria area, between Ovada and the Bormida Valley, others in the Turin and Cuneo areas. In several mountain hamlets we are already working with tankers. Governor Alberto Cirio announced the opening of a discussion with Valle d’Aosta and Canton Ticino to obtain a greater supply of water for agricultural use, declaring himself ready to request a state of emergency if the weather conditions do not improve.

Towards a state of emergency

The request to formally declare the state of emergency comes forcefully from Coldiretti, who has urged the Region to activate the procedures required by current legislation, including the exception to the minimum vital flow and the ecological flow of watercourses. The recognition of the state of emergency for the agricultural sector, according to the organization, already finds the consensus of numerous local mayors and would pave the way for extraordinary support measures for the affected agricultural companies. On the drinking water level, the Region specifies, there is not yet a full-blown emergency, but monitoring remains constant: if the weather conditions do not improve, the formal activation of the state of emergency will be requested in coordination with the other Regions experiencing the same criticality, to guarantee the necessary refreshments.

Coldiretti: “Damage as in 2022”

Concern is growing on the agricultural front. The president of Coldiretti Torino, Bruno Mecca Cici, reports critical situations on the Pellice, Chisone-Lemina, Stura di Lanzo, Orco and Sangone rivers, with the water in some areas having already stopped reaching the fields. Sowing, the organization recalls, has already cost Turin farmers over 46 million euros, with increases of 30% on fertilizers and 60% on diesel. Among the requests made for some time, a plan for small reservoirs that favors seasonal water accumulation, as well as structural interventions on the canal network, often damaged by calamitous events and in need of modernization.

@Laura Valentini