A state of emergency was declared on both islands earlier this year.
ADVERTISEMENTThe droughts which are crippling Sicily and Sardinia were made twice as likely by human-caused climate change.
“Without the effects of human-caused warming, the droughts on both islands would not have been classified as extreme [under the US Drought Monitoring Classification system],” according to scientists from World Weather Attribution (WWA).
Italy’s two largest islands have suffered from exceptionally low rainfall and very high temperatures over the past 12 months.
In February and July, Italian authorities even declared a state of emergency for the Mediterranean islands, amid the worst drought in 20 years.
While it is currently not possible to attribute Sardinia and Sicily’s highly variable rainfall to climate change, the study highlights that blistering heat is turning years with low rainfall into devastating droughts.
Droughts had severe impacts on agriculture and tourism
Climate-induced droughts are a major issue for these islands where agriculture and tourism are backbones of the economy. Wheat and olive harvests, staples of the Mediterranean diet, are especially badly affected.
Due to the huge losses of wheat, Sicilian farmers have even had to prematurely slaughter animals.
At the end of July, news agency AFP reported that “crushing drought in Sicily has withered fields of grain, deprived livestock of pasture land and fanned a spate of wildfires, causing damage already estimated at €2.7 billion this year.”
In Sardinia, while agriculture is less prominent in the economy, the sector has other uses.
“Crops used to produce Italy’s iconic cuisine, like wheat and olives, are dying in ferocious heat well above 40°C”, says Friederike Otto, co-founder of WWA.
As the end of the European summer approaches, the drought persists and water reservoirs on both islands are almost empty, despite water rationing since February, raising fears of water supply problems and greater agricultural losses.
The need for mitigation and adaptation
With the threat of two degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels looming, drought is likely to become more common and intense worldwide.
While mitigating global warming is essential to prevent such droughts from becoming the new normal, adaptation will also play a key role, according to WWA experts.
Investing in resilient infrastructure and water conservation will be necessary to adapt to a warmer climate on these Mediterranean islands.
“Limiting water loss from aging, leaky pipes and increasing storage capacity in Sardinia and Sicily will help reduce similar water shortages in low rainfall years”, says Maja Vahlberg, climate risk consultant at Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.
ADVERTISEMENTAlongside other Mediterranean countries, Italy pledged, during the Med9 meeting in Cyprus last week, to develop more water-saving technologies.
