ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s government will appoint a special commissioner to address the effects of a drought crisis, a draft decree seen by Reuters showed on Thursday, along with a task force made up of leading officials from various ministries.
Dry winter weather has stoked concerns that Italy could face a second drought after a state of emergency was declared last summer for the highly productive northern agricultural areas surrounding the Po river.
A legal decree Giorgia Meloni’s cabinet is set to pass at a meeting scheduled for 5.30 p.m. (1530 GMT) stipulates that the drought commissioner will take charge of all interventions needed to tackle the emergency.
The commissioner, whose mandate expires at the end of December but can be prorogated for one year more, will coordinate efforts to reduce water consumption across the country and to fix infrastructure requiring maintenance.
The commissioner will have sweeping powers constrained only by criminal law, the decree said.
Leaky pipes are a big issue for Italy. In a report published in March, national statistics bureau ISTAT said that in 2020, the most recent data available, Italy’s aqueducts had lost 42.2% of the water they carried, the highest proportion on record.
In 2008, water leakage was 10 percentage points lower.
In February last year the Po had 61% less water than was normal for the time of year, according to environmentalist group Legambiente, after the area suffered its worst drought for 70 years.
Environment Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin recently said the government would invest almost 8 billion euros ($8.74 billion) in a package designed to tackle drought.
($1 = 0.9157 euros)
(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte and Angelo Amante; Editing by Jan Harvey)
