Italy faces water deficit because of low rain, snowfall

Italy faces a severe water deficit because of low rain and snowfall levels, media reports said Thursday.

The levels are currently not sufficient to remedy the water deficit the country carried over from last year, said the National Association of Consortium for the Management and Protection of the Soil and Irrigated Waters (ANBI), according to public broadcaster Rainews.

It added that levels at the largest freshwater reserves, the big lakes in northern Italy, are presently under average levels measured at this time of the year.

The percentage that had been refilled during the wetter autumn and winter months was lower than in January 2022, which came before an "extraordinary season of drought" last year, said ANBI.