Climate change: Italy’s water resources hit rock bottom in 2022

Rome: Italy’s available water resources hit an all-time low in 2022, as a combination of rising temperatures and lower rainfall halved fresh supplies compared to the average of the last 30 years, data showed on Friday.

A drought last year also disrupted Italian olive oil output, which fell to its lowest level since 1990, said ISTAT, the national statistics institute.

Total water supplies were “almost 50 per cent below” the annual average of 133 billion cubic metres from 1991 to 2020, ISTAT said in its annual report.

Dry spells have become increasingly common in Italy, while human-induced climate change and rising demand for water have shrunk reservoir volumes globally.

Severe droughts affected about 20pc of the country in 2022, ISTAT said, in an extension of a steadily rising trend over the last 70 years.

Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida told Reuters in May that Italy must adjust to the reality, as “drought is not a (one-off) emergency.”

Lollobrigida said Italy needed to build more basins to capture rainwater, urgently patch up leaky water networks, repair dams and consider removing traditional, but thirsty crops away from increasingly arid areas.

Ageing infrastructure and leaky pipes are exacerbating an already disastrous situation, with much precious water vanishing down the drain before it even reaches the taps.