Remember when you were a child and kept the tap running while brushing your teeth and your parents scolded you for the waste? Well, now imagine the same scenario, but it's the drought in Sicily. The worst one, the one that is devouring the crops. Yet there are those who are literally throwing rainwater into the sea.
It is not a fairy tale to teach the value of water, it is the paradoxical reality that Sicilian farmers are experiencing. And believe me, there is no happy ending on the horizon, at least for now.
Drought in Sicily, the emblematic case of the Trinità dam
The lemon producer Rosario Sister-in-law he's furious, and he's right. His fruits are withering due to the drought in Sicily, while a few kilometers away rainwater is discharged into the sea. There Trinity dam, built in 1959 in the city of Castelvetrano, has never been officially tested.
Consequently, as soon as the artificial basin fills with winter rains, the authorities are forced to open the floodgates and the precious water ends up in a canal that flows into the sea.
Ironically, the dam was intended to supply local irrigation networks, so much so that even farmers' wells were closed by the authorities. To this day, 65 years later, the infrastructure has not only never been given the green light, but has also been virtually ignored. Some desperate farmers dig illegal wells to compensate for the problem.
Drought in Sicily, the climate change aggravates the situation
Professor Leonardo Valerio Noto of the University of Palermo underlines that this year "rainfall decreased by approximately 350 mm compared to an annual average of 750 mm“. For this reason, many of the 46 artificial reservoirs on the island are already in an almost critical situation, with some practically empty.
A management and investment problem
The lack of public investment in the maintenance of the distribution network is a very serious problem. Italy it is the leading country in the EU in terms of absolute volumes of fresh water withdrawn, but out of 100 liters introduced into the distribution network, 42 are lost along the way due to the poor condition of the pipes. Sardinia and Sicily are the regions with the worst performance, with a loss of 52,8% and 51,6% of water respectively.
Large investments are announced to transport people across the country, and reach Sicily by land, when we are not even able to transport water. The land of paradoxes: great works, great miseries.
The consequences for agriculture and the population
On her Campobello di Mazara estate, Cognata helplessly watches her lemons rot and fall from her increasingly struggling trees. He estimates his losses at between 30% and 40%. “Without water there is no life. It's very serious. Families risk their livelihood, young people prefer to leave and the countryside is emptying,” she says.
Returning to the future (hopefully): in July the Sicily Region signed an action plan with the government worth 1,6 billion euros, which includes the objective of "reducing water losses". The feeling is that the undertaking is titanic. At the current rate of pipeline renewal (just four meters per kilometer per year), it would take 250 years to replace them.
Drought in Sicily, the future is an unknown
Drought in Sicily is not just a climate problem, but the result of decades of mismanagement and lack of investment in water infrastructure. Farmers struggle to survive, and water is wasted due to outdated and inefficient systems. The solution will not only require significant investment, but a radical change in the approach to managing the island's water resources.
Because the efficient management of water resources is no longer a luxury, but a vital necessity. The future of Sicilian agriculture, and perhaps of the island itself, will depend on the ability to face this challenge with urgency and determination.
