The north's mighty River Po is shrinking and unless urgent action is taken it could soon be too low for shipping purposes, river experts warned on Thursday.
The 675 km-long Po, the country's longest and most used river, cuts across the north from west to east.
It is a key cargo route and also feeds irrigation channels on the fertile Po plain.
Luca Crose of regional internal navigation agency ARNI said that falling water levels were a growing threat to the river's goods transportation industry.
Crose stressed that the Po's volume had fallen 40% in the last 30 years while the quantity of goods shipped along it has grown sharply, particularly since 2005.
He said for example that flour and cereal shipments passing through Rovigo on the eastern Po had risen from 90,000 tons in 2005 to more than 110,000 in 2006.
Meanwhile, 152,000 tons of chemical and petroleum products were shipped through the industrial zone of Mantua last year against 145,000 the year before.
ARNI called for an emergency plan of action to prevent the river falling too low, arguing that if businesses were unable to use the Po to transport cargo they would be forced to use Italian roads, with a potentially disastrous impact on traffic and the environment.
"The aim is to ensure that, despite climate change, Italy's main river can continue to sustain cargo transport on a par with other major European rivers," Crose said.
RIVER IN CRISIS.
The Po has frequently been in a state of emergency in recent years as a result of anomalous weather conditions, in particular repeated droughts, and the increased use of its waters - more than 70% - for agricultural purposes.
Parts of the river were reduced to their lowest levels in living memory this year and the last.
The situation is destined to get worse as climate change continues, scientists say, with dramatic consequences for farmers.
Last month, experts attending a climate conference in Parma warned that Italy risked losing the raw materials for culinary traditions like risotto because of global warming's impact on the Po.
The experts said that it could be impossible to grow water-intensive crops such as rice and corn in the Po valley because the river would not have enough water for them.
Global warming is coming at the river from two directions, they said.
Increased temperatures mean more water evaporates as it flows down towards the sea.
Greater heat also makes the land drier, so farmers have to siphon off more water from the river for their crops.
Some have predicted that the Po's fresh waters may eventually run out 100 kilometres before they reach the river's mouth.
This would cause sea waters from the Adriatic to sweep up it.
Italian farmers' association Coldiretti stressed that one third of the nation's agro-food output - and the livelihoods it supports - depend on the Po.
It called for preventative measures to be introduced immediately.
"The Po is indispensable to the survival of whole sectors where Italy is a European leader, like rice and sugar," Coldiretti said in a statement.
Around 73% of the water drawn from the Po is for agriculture.
Drinking water accounts for 11% of the extracted water, while hydroelectric-energy plants (9%) and industry (7%) take up the rest.
