The numbers said it, for the umpteenth time, a few weeks ago, and they confirm it now too: Sicilian dams are going from bad to worse. The numbers are those released in these hours by the regional basin authority, which as of 27 May 2024 photographed 289 million cubic meters of water in the island’s lakes, of which only 154 million can actually be used to avoid extinction of the fish species present in structures: this is 6% less resource (ten million cubic metres) compared to the previous month, which already showed a 7% shortfall compared to last March, between liquids used and evaporated due to the heat.
But what makes the wrists tremble, plastically restoring the state of emergency in which the territory finds itself, is the comparison with last year, given that the volumes filled have reached almost half the height recorded on 1 June 2023, in the dams , including non-usable water, there were 520 million cubic metres. More precisely, 45% of the resource is missing, equal to over 230 million, corresponding to the contents of six large basins.
The situation of the Fanaco is particularly critical, reduced to one million cubic meters of resource, 93% less compared to the same period last year, while in the Ancipa, between Enna and Messina, again on an annual basis, the deficit amounts to 73% and, again in the metropolitan city of Palermo, the Rosamarina reservoirs (in the picture) and Poma recorded declines of 60 and 36% respectively. But the structures on the southern side of the territory are not doing much better, at least those intended for irrigation use, starting with the Santa Rosalia dam, which in Ragusa, in an annual comparison, sees a shortfall of 27%.
On the other hand, the hopes that it may rain in the next ten days or more are equivalent to zero, or almost zero, while between now and June 25th in Sicily the mercury column, predicts Giulio Betti, meteorologist and climatologist of the Cnr-Lamma Consortium, «will begin to rise again rise, driven by two heat waves: the first between next Sunday and Wednesday, with maximum values that in the hinterland could reach 37 degrees; the second starting from Thursday, with peaks that until Saturday 22nd June, still in the internal part, will even reach 40 degrees”.
Also in this case, as already happened last May and in the previous eight months, «the rise will be anomalous, higher than the seasonal averages, confirming, if any were still needed, the effects of ongoing climate changes. Luckily, the new wave won’t last long: after the 25th there will be a bit of cool weather.”
