Drought, Piedmont is ‘thirsty’

Piedmont is “thirsty” and the drought situation in the region “is getting worse”. Speaking with Adnkronos, it was revealed by the geologist Paolo Sassone, president of the Piedmont section of the Italian Society of Environmental Geology (Sigea), who underlines: “It hasn’t rained for 6 months and therefore – underlined Sassone – there is a progressive worsening and it is not foreseeable that the situation will improve because we are faced with hot and dry months like July and August “which do not promise great rainfall, adds the geologist, recalling that June was usually the month when it rains the most in summer. “In the last period however – explained the geologist – there have been only two fast passages of rain and therefore the countryside certainly suffers and since it suffers, the withdrawals from the subsoil and from the waterways increase with a progressive impoverishment of the resource because from upstream there is not much influx. ” The Sassone geologist himself had estimated a “rainfall deficit of 55% in the last six months” in Piedmont, which put “the springs in distress”. “In the Cuneo area – said Sassone – the greatest problems due to the lack of rain are in Ormea and Demonte, where the tankers intervened, but also the 1,300 mountain springs – which guarantee 55 per cent of the water flow – are suffering. major problems, however, are recorded in the north of Piedmont: from February to date, 1,080 interventions have been carried out by tankers in Verbano Cusio Ossola and in the Biellese, Casalese and Vercellese areas “. At the moment the drought is causing a “critical problem for agriculture and in the plains while for drinking water service it is not at risk because in the plains the hydro-deep aquifers still give a good guarantee. There is deep water supplies” in Piedmont, reassures the geologist by Sigea Paolo Sassone. “The problems – warns the geologist – are in the mountains where there was no snow this year, so probably in the winter” the problem of mountain water supply “will be very much felt, and it is probable that there will be a worsening of the situation to the point of having to supply locally the mountain aqueducts which are fed by the springs “. And, Sassone adds, “in the future, an alternative supply will have to be used because it is impossible to predict that there will be a recharge between now and September” without rain.