Published by the Ansa agency, the news ended up with great prominence in the national news: the Occhito dam lost one million cubic meters of water in a single day.
On the border between Molise and Puglia there is one of the symbols of the water emergency of 2024. According to data from the Consortium for the reclamation of the Capitanata di Foggia, the lake, created thanks to a dam on the Fortore river, in the latest 24-hour surveys has went from a water availability of 127,634,300 million cubic meters to 126,641,200 million. And in fact the availability of water has almost halved compared to the same period in 2023.
The reservoir, which half belongs to the province of Campobasso and the other to that of Foggia and is approximately 12 kilometers long which represents the border between the two regions, is one of the most important basins for water supply in Puglia and Molise (as well as being the second largest artificial lake in Europe by capacity). It has a total capacity of 333 million cubic meters of water, 250 of which are usable. On 18 June 2023, water availability was 240 million square metres, today we are around 127.
Both Molise and Puglia are among the 12 Italian regions with high water stress according to a recent report by the “Valore Acqua” Community for Italy of The European House-Ambrosetti.
And Lake Occhito is clearly affected by this stress.
Due to the high temperatures, evaporation and lack of precipitation – in winter, for example, very little snow fell on the Matese – the lack of water is starting to be felt critically, also in the Liscione area.
For the president of Molise Acque Stefano Sabatini “it is urgent to intervene to avoid an even deeper crisis in the coming months”. We started from the night-time closures of the distribution networks (in some cases even beyond night-time hours) and for lower Molise, if the central Molisano aqueduct is not sufficient, the special company that deals with collection and supply is ready to activate the water purification plant for Liscione.
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