Italy needs to store at least 350 million cubic meters of water before the end of the month in order to limit the consequences of an expected summer drought, experts said on Tuesday.
The Italian government last week declared a state of emergency as a precautionary measure because of the extremely low levels of lakes and rivers following an unusually dry winter.
A special crisis unit was set up to manage the emergency with representatives from key ministries, including the environment and industry, the civil defense department and various major water authorities.
A contingency plan drawn up by the unit was illustrated to the House environment committee on Monday by Civil Protection chief Guido Bertolaso.
In his appearance before the committee, Bertolaso stressed that while the lack of winter rain and snow was a major cause of Italy's water shortage, the country's current water crisis was the result of the "irrational and inadequate management" of water resources.
According to the civil protection chief, "obsolete and inefficient infrastructures have led to continued waste and cause much more damage than a lack of rainfall".
Given this situation, he added, it was essential that the government give a green light to infrastructure projects which have already been planned and drawn up.
Bertolaso also said that citizens must play their part "and instead of looking for someone to blame, come up with ideas and suggestions on how to save water".
"In Italy our mentality is to use water indiscriminately. We need to become more virtuous and learn to save such an important resource as water," the civil protection chief said.
In order to raise public awareness, the crisis unit has commissioned a TV advertising campaign which will focus on ways to save both water and electricity.
Other measures in the contingency plan include greater controls on water drawn from the Po River by industry and agriculture and planned power shortages for non-domestic use.
The full plan will be presented to Premier Romano Prodi at the end of the week.
