Italian Authorities to Declare State of Emergency due to Drought within Two Weeks

The Italian Civil Defense announced plans to declare a state of emergency in the country due to the severe drought within two weeks.

And the head of the Civil Defense, Fabrizio Corcio, said that "to declare a state of emergency, it is important to understand the measures that must be taken to mitigate the emergency itself."

"We will define standards with the provincial administrations, and above all measures," he added, as quoted by the daily Italian newspaper, El Messaggero.

"In the coming days, we will have clear procedures and we will be able to declare a state of emergency," Korcho said.

He concluded, that in some areas of the country, we cannot rule out rationing water quantities, thus closing the distribution during daylight hours.

The Italian Minister of Agricultural Policies, Stefano Patuanelli, stressed the need to rationalize water in light of the "lack of water resources", and said that giving priority to "civil, animal and agricultural" uses, then industry.