Dire effects of the drought in Italy:
If you are in Rome now, you might want to stay abreast of the news. One proposal is to shut off water to different neighborhoods for 8 hours at a time. Who knows if this will be implemented, but it is worth following. Drinking fountains may be turned off as well.
This is a possibility, a hot topic on the news, but of course lots of opposition to it.
Wow, that comes as a surprise. I wasn't aware that Italy was suffering a drought this year. This seems to be the year of natural disasters all over. We had unprecedented flooding in the late spring followed by horrendous fires and that situation is still ongoing. California, Portugal, Spain, Croatia and other countries in Europe also dealing with severe fires, and New Zealand just had extreme flooding. Hopefully things improve for everyone!
A friend in Tuscany reports her olives (they farm) are drying up and falling off of the trees.
And no matter whether it's "global warming" or a "natural cycle" or "civic emergency" ... when the water is cut off and you can't flush, it impacts your day.
Funny, in Piedmont it's been raining every afternoon for the last 5 days and heavy rains are expected in the rest of northern Italy within the end of this week.
The 2017 Barolo is safe, it seems that the big boss upstairs knows what really matters: red wine and white truffles.
American visitors should do their part and stop asking for tap water in restaurants. Support the local economy and the planet by drinking wine only
Roberto--- Only Americans should stop drinking water?
Got no problem with drinking wine, but curious why you specified "Americans" as the only tourists who should stop drinking water.
I saw on the news tonight that the Pope has ordered the fountains in Vatican City to be turned off.
Cynthia
I saw it on the news tonight too, Cynthia. They also mentioned the 8-hr. shutoff possibility.
I think Roberto's comment singled out Americans as they are the only tourists asking for tap water.
Went back and read the article. Just astounding that 25%-50 % of the water is lost to leakage.
Read material from our local water utility that a 20% loss to leaks is the norm for the US. Our utility advises less than 3% is lost to leakage in our service area.
The global climate goes through changes, so during dry times, its an un-affordable luxury to loose up to 50% of the water supply to leaks
The bottled water truck drivers are going to be busy.
Turning off the water for 8 hours at a time would truly be drastic, and likely more devastating to tourism than a nut case with a truck running over people on the sidewalk
As the Guardian article correctly points to, the question has two sides. There is no doubt this is a very hot summer, we are already two months under unrelenting sunshine and water reserves are now at the same level they should be in late September - but we have still two summer months in front of us. Agriculture is in bad shape as the season is too sunny.
And then there is a political side, as the mayor of Rome is coming from an anti-system party, traditional parties are trying to show she is really inefficient. We will admit she is not too bright, to put it mildly; but she routinely gets accused of not fixing in one year problems that her predecessors left to rot for twenty years - one of them being leaky water pipes, to the point that a large percentage of water supplies gets dispersed. I would not rule out that threats of shutting off water supplies point to making the mayor look ineffective than to actually preserve water.
New York City has similar leakage problems, to the tune of about 100 million liters per day. Old aqueduct tunnels are not easy to repair as this article from the failing New York Times explains.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/nyregion/23tunnel.html
she routinely gets accused of not fixing in one year problems that her predecessors left to rot for twenty year
The Major of Bracciano is a young woman of the same age and from the same party. She has spent months trying to warn the not-so-bright major of Rome about what was going to happen. Together with meteorologists. In the end she formally asked the Lazio Governor to enforce the emergency environment protection law and save the lake that gives name to her city.
The nasoni had to be closed in April, not last week. The major of Rome should have appeared on TV months ago, asking her fellow citizens to save a little water every day changing their habits. Romans have enjoyed tons of fresh water for 2,000 years, to the point that not fixing the leaks has always been cheaper than doing it. How many hotels in Rome display a sign saying "please don't waste water" like those in rural Tuscany? Small things can make great savings in the long run.
Of course it takes time, money and communication to change people's habits, you can't do it in July.
There is no need of any conspirancy theory, she's doing everything by herself: she's not facing problems in time.
A little more insight into the problem from one of my favorite bloggers, Mozzarella Mamma.
