Environmentalists and lawmakers sounded the alarm on Tuesday over the state of the Po, saying a prolonged drought had sapped the northern river and reduced it in places to its lowest levels in living memory.
Ermete Realacci, the head of the House Environmental Committee, described the situation as "verging on a natural disaster".
Realacci and several committee members have spent the past two days touring the Po, which at 650 km is the country's longest and most used river.
The committee said that water levels had hit a record low, falling to 7.39 metres below sea level at one point, and that urgent action was required to save crops and local livelihoods.
The river, which cuts across northern Italy from west to east, feeds irrigation channels on the fertile Po plain and is also a key shipping route.
The lack of water has damaged crops with fields running dry.
Farmers' union Coldiretti said the drought was a "calamity" for northern agriculture and that up to 50% of rice, corn, vegetable and fruit crops had been lost.
They asked for the release of emergency funds for farmers in the six northern regions of Piedmont, Lombardy, Friuli, Emilia Romagna, Veneto and Liguria.
Agriculture Minister Paolo De Castro subsequently issued a statement saying he would meet Ecoomy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa on Wednesday to discuss the swift release of funds to ease the situation.
Realacci said the crisis had been aggravated by construction firms which continued to remove vast quantities of sand from the river bed, often illegally.
The opposition right-wing National Alliance (AN) also pointed an accusing finger at the country's leaky water distribution system, which it said allowed only 60% of water to make it to the tap.
AN lawmaker Cristina Muscardini said that many Italian reservoirs, aqueducts and water mains were in a state of disrepair.
She said the result was that 40% of all water supplies were lost through leakages.
"The situation is getting worse every year and becomes acute when there is a drought," she said.
