The longest river in Italy is drying up: How will locals survive?

The mighty Po River nourishes a vast area of northern Italy, but climate change is causing a devastating drought. At a monitoring station in Boretto, the Interregional Body of the Po River (AIPO), received results that the Po was measuring 2.9 metres below the zero gauge height, drastically below the seasonal average. These record-low water levels, which the AIPO would normally only measure in August, are partly a result of the lack of rainfall that northern Italy has been suffering. The problems start in the mountains, where snowfall has been at its lowest for 20 years measuring 50 per cent less than the seasonal average. The glaciers of the Alps, which act as reservoirs to feed the river, are also shrinking each year. The situation has set alarm bells ringing about the effects climate change could have on an area so heavily dependent upon the river’s waters. Click to read more on Euronews.