“For seven days we have been supplying ourselves with water tanks taken from public fountains,” says a citizen of Torretta in Potenza. The water crisis is being felt even more by the drought that has now hit Basilicata like a scourge. In the fields, farmers are faced with crops gone up in smoke, in the cities, especially in the suburbs, there is a lack of water for up to 48 hours straight and when it arrives, at night, you can’t even wash because of the very low pressure.
The aqueduct in pieces
The aqueduct reservoirs are half empty and the water network is in pieces, little maintenance, the primary good is lost in the aquifers, for years. The Lucano Aqueduct has released the alarming data for this year: there is 40 percent less cubic meters of water in the reservoirs compared to last year. Hence the decision to ration water. And in many cases there are tankers driving around the cities. In Matera the mayor is quick to sign an ordinance in which he threatens heavy fines for those who waste, perhaps by watering their gardens. In Potenza the newly installed mayor is trying to get busy, but it is not easy to find solutions.
The state of calamity
A state of disaster due to drought was declared in Pisticci and Policoro. Because the tropical temperatures of these days and the lack of water also block tourism, with enormous damage. For agriculture, the alarm had already been raised in recent months, also by Coldiretti: wheat had been affected by climate change, now the cereal harvest is at risk, the next olive growing season, the industry and the tourism sector are already in suffering.
In Policoro. the mayor Enrico Bianco wrote to the government: «we ask for a state of calamity due to the continuation of the drought which is hitting our territory hard, with the municipal political administrators who are forced to ask for urgent structural interventions from the President of the Council of Ministers, the Minister of the Interior and the Basilicata Region, in order to better deal with the water shortage to safeguard livestock farming and the production of agricultural companies, which are currently in difficulty in finding the right volumes of water that allow fruit and vegetable production . Furthermore, considering the current and numerous reports from farmers, the Municipality of Policoro has declared that it intends to request the application of the exemption on natural disasters, which provides criteria for compensation and economic support to agricultural businesses that have suffered damage from adverse weather conditions, requiring extraordinary interventions in an adequate measure by the Ministry of Agricultural and Forestry Policies and the Basilicata Region, for compensation for damages suffered in the entire sector”.
The exhausted citizens
But those who are exhausted in the Potenza area are especially the citizens who stay at home completely dry for days hoping for rain.
