Drought emergency, Patuanelli: “The situation is delicate, today ministries summit”

The drought emergency is increasingly worrying and the government is accelerating to give answers also to the agricultural world which could remain dry in many areas, with the threat of an agri-food crisis for our country. And the Minister of Agriculture Stefano Patuanelli announced the initiative of an inter-ministerial summit. “Today there will be an important meeting at the level of the cabinets of all the ministries involved: Mipaaf, Mite, Mef, Regional Affairs. Then we will update at the political level, the situation is delicate” admitted the owner of the Mipaaf. Meanwhile, in Piedmont there is red alert with the president Alberto Cirio for “the reductions in the withdrawal load on the Po” who asks for help from the Val D’Aosta “because the damage to agriculture risks being devastating”. Coldiretti pushes for a rapid intervention by the government with the president of Ettore Prandini who has asked for “a state of emergency in the territories concerned, taking into account the serious prejudice of national interests” in a letter sent to the Premeir Mario Draghi. We need a ” intervention of the Civil Protection system to coordinate all those involved, Regions concerned, Basin Authorities and reclamation Consortia, and cooperate for a unitary management of the water balance “. Alongside immediate measures to guarantee the food supply of the population, for Prandini “The urgency of launching a major national plan for reservoirs is evident. We collect only 11% of the rainwater and we could reach 50%, thus avoiding crisis situations such as the one we are suffering again this year. emergencies more and more recurring with a cost in the last 10 years that exceeds 10 billion euros “. “Italy needs new reservoirs at the service of citizens and economic activities, such as agriculture which in the presence of water could multiply production capacity”. Meanwhile the Po is at an all-time low. ” The level of the Po is at -3.3 meters compared to the zero hydrometric level lower than in August a year ago. Drought affects crops, from rice to sunflowers, from corn to soybeans, but also the cultivation of wheat and other cereals and fodder for the animal feed, at a time when it is necessary to guarantee full production with the war in Ukraine. ” This is what emerges from the latest Coldiretti monitoring on the worrying situation of the river at Ponte della Becca (Pavia). “Today it is decreed the red alert,. states the president of Piedmont Alberto Cirio – we had fully foreseen it, for the moment it is not a question of permanent blocks but of reductions in the withdrawal load on the Po “, explains Cirio who adds:” today I also asked the president of Valle D ‘Aosta, as had happened in the past, to verify the possibility of aid because the damage to agriculture risks being devastating. “Signals arrive from the Municipality of Chieri, on the Turin hill, where the collection and consumption of drinking water for all uses other than food, domestic and sanitary.