Water is so low in large stretches of Italy's largest river that local residents are walking through the middle of the expanse of sand and an old ship is resurfacing.
In a park near the central northern village of Gualtieri, cyclists and hikers stop in curiosity to observe the Zibello, a 50-meter-long ship that transported wood during the WWⅡ but sank in 1943. It was normally covered by the Po's waters. "It's the first time that we can see this ship," said amateur cyclist Raffaele Vezzal. "I've never seen such a drought at this time of year—our main worry was our river flooding, but now we worry about its disappearance."
The drying up of the Po, which runs 652 kilometers from the northwestern city of Turin to Venice, is jeopardizing the drinking water supply in Italy's densely populated and highly industrialized districts and threatening irrigation in the most intensively farmed part of the country, known as the Italian food valley.
Northern Italy hasn't seen rainfall for more than 110 days and this year's snowfall is down by 70%. Aquifers (含水层), which hold groundwater, are exhausted. Temperatures of 2℃ above season average are melting the tiny snowfields and glaciers that were left on the top of the surrounding Alps, leaving the Po basin without its summer water reservoirs.
All these factors are leading to the worst drought in 70 years
according to the Po River Basin Authority (PRBA).
Meuccio Berselli, secretary-general of the Po River Basin Authority, is working on a plan to guarantee drinking and irrigation water to millions of households and to the Po valley farmers, who produce 40% of Italian food. The plan includes higher draining from Alpine lakes, less water for hydroelectric (水力发电的) plants and distribution of water in the upstream regions.
According to a state owned energy service system operator, 55% of the renewable energy coming from hydroelectric plants in Italy comes from the Po and its tributaries. Experts fear that a lack of hydroelectric power will contribute to increased carbon dioxide emissions (排放), as more electricity will have to be produced with natural gas.
