After Lombardy, the pressure of the climate crisis is now growing on Veneto, where the Civil Protection has just issued a bulletin warning that the rains forecast for the next few hours “may generate new increases in hydrometric levels, with further exceeding of the alert thresholds”.
As regards the hydraulic criticality, a state of alarm (red) has already been decreed in the Alto Brenta-Bacchiglione-Alpone and Basso Brenta – Bacchiglione basins, and a state of pre-alarm (orange) in the Livenza, Lemene and Tagliamento basins, attention on the rest of the basins except on the upper Piave (green).
Things are no better with regards to hydrogeological criticality: state of alarm (red) in the Po, Fissero-Tartaro-CanalBianco and Basso Adige basins; of the Lower Brenta-Bacchiglione; of the Lower Piave, Sile and the lagoon drainage basin; pre-alarm status (orange) in all the rest of the regional basins.
In other words, the hydrogeological alert for thunderstorms in all the river basins of the Veneto is maximum, with the exception of the upper Piave area of Belluno.
«In a few hours from late yesterday afternoon the ARPAV and the Civil Protection of Veneto recorded record rainfall – explains the President of the Region, Luca Zaia – in the Piedmont area of Vicenza and Verona there was an average of 180 mm of water, with peaks of 229 mm, in six hours. Yesterday evening we activated the Crisis Unit. This morning I signed the decree for the declaration of the State of Emergency due to adverse weather conditions. Water bombs like this in May, in Veneto, had never been seen before.”
But it’s not about bad weather: climate change leads to an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, which in the last year alone have grown in Italy by 22% (and the year before by 55%), with Veneto at the top sixth place among the most affected regions, as demonstrated by Legambiente’s CittàClima Observatory.
«We are faced with exceptional rainfall phenomena – confirms Zaia – which have hit especially in the Vicenza, Verona and Padua areas. The opening of the rolling basins made it possible to avoid a disaster. We have activated all the basins in the Vicenza area (Montebello, Caldogno, Trissino, Orolo and Viale Diaz) and also one in the Verona area, that of Colombaretta. It was the first real test for some of these.”
But without a rapid and decisive change in political commitment against the climate crisis, the current trend is a condemnation for a country like ours, which does not invest enough in adaptation – for floods we spend 7 times more on emergencies than on prevention , certifies the Green Swan – and not even in the ecological transition towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions.
And so one emergency follows another. «I thank all the people who are working to ensure that the emergency is overcome – concludes Zaia – I remember that since yesterday evening over 100 Civil Protection teams have been involved, with more than 400 men in the area. To them must be added all the technicians, the Region’s staff and the volunteers who are working tirelessly in this new emergency. Special thanks also to the firefighters, who were truly present in force and with the competence that distinguishes them.”
