Italy: Drought alarm issued, Prodi mobilizes prefectures

In Rome, Italy, Prime Minister Romano Prodi sounded an alarm over the effects of the winter's drought upon the country's water supplies. Criticizing the current scattergun approach to watershed management, he asked regional, provincial, and private-sector water officials to cooperate on an emergency plan. According to Civil Defense statistics, winter precipitation has been 20-40% lower than average, and even 50-60% lower in some areas of the northeast and central Italy. Snowpack is only a third of what it was last year. The Po River's flows have dropped drastically, to 500 cubic meters per second, and Lake Garda is well below normal levels.