To intercede the arrival of the rain, in Verona they even exhibited the “Holy Thorn”, the bone of a large fish which was used by the Romans to behead martyrs Stopped And Rustic. A tradition that has its roots in Two-hundredwhen the population, after an uninterrupted four month droughthe asked for grace, praying in front of the relic. Chroniclers of the time recounted that this really happened. Veneto, like the other northern regions, is ending a winter without water, with snow at historic lows, the reservoirs which have dramatically reduced by proportionsrivers with very low flow rates.
The situation is such that the president of the regional council, Luca Zaia, said he was ready to intervene by ordering rationing and bans on the use of water other than for food. “There isn’t any water, we are in big trouble. For this I will shortly make an ordinance focused on the saving water resources. Water is the greatest treasure we have”. The Northern League champion of autonomy has also called for the intervention of the central government. “I hope that at national level a decision will be made to finance a major plan and that we can go ahead with the cleaning of the Alpine reservoirs, artificial dams or lakes. If we can remove 50/60 percent of the debris stagnant, we could recover 40 percent of cubic meters of water more that we can allocate to the invaded. Furthermore, it is necessary to authorize the quarries in the plains as a network of reservoirs and to finance the world of agriculture to reduce the dispersion of water resources, as they do in Israel”.
Minorities did not like Zaia’s announcement. The opposition spokesman in the regional council, Arthur Lorenzoni: “Drought is not governed by ordinances, but by rigorous planning of infrastructural works. The regional administration is late and continues to postpone the coordination of investments relating to infrastructure capable of retaining water”. The dem Andrea Zanoni: “Does Zaia say he’s ready to ration water? A sign of the failure produced by his immobility: the phenomenon has been known since 2015. THE Reclamation consortia they have been asking the Region for some time to implement 99 surgeriesfor a cost of 807 million euros, aimed at saving water, with structural improvements to the pipelines and with the indispensable collection basins. In recent years, Zaia has not lifted a finger, preferring to focus his attention on single-growing wine, prosecco in particular”.
The picture of the situation is outlined by the latest Arpav report, the Veneto Environmental Protection Agency. February was a warm month, with 2.6 degrees above average. On the Veneto they fell on average 3mm of rainagainst an average of 60mm in the period 1994-2022. During the month, meteoric inputs were almost zero (down by 96 percent). In one month, 35 percent of the Arpav stations recorded no or less than one millimeter of rainfall. In the last five months, from October to February, an average of 307 millimeters of rain fell, compared to 446 millimeters in the period 1994-2022.
In all the river basins of the region there are conditions of high deficit rain gauge: ranging from negative values for 90 per cent of the Po, to those of 98 per cent of AdigeLemene, SileTagliamento and the plain between Livence and the Piave. River flows are well below historical averages: 31 percent lower on the Adige to Boara Pisani, 37 percent of the Brent in Barziza, by 58 percent of the Bit in Pontelagoscuro and 70 percent on the Bacchiglione in Montegalda.
Very few snowfall: From October to the end of February, the deficit was 32 percent in the Dolomites, equal to about 115 centimeters less of fresh snow, and 20 percent in the Pre-Alps at 1600 meters in height, equal to 50 centimeters of fresh snow. This situation has led to minimum levels of both the Lake Garda (in the photo) that the aquifer which is found in the subsoil of the region.
The Spi index, which quantifies the impact of the deficit of precipitation in different time scales, reports second Arpav “a moderate drought on the province of Rovigo, on the southern tip of the province of Venice, on the upper Garda area and on a strip between Bellunese, Vicenza and Treviso. Severe drought in the rest of the Veneto with the exception of some areas in the Venetian area where conditions of extreme drought exist”.
