Suffering through the worst drought in decades, Milan’s mayor ordered public fountains turned off, while the city’s archbishop toured the churches, offering up prayers for rain.
The city ordinance follows the declaration Friday of a state of emergency in the surrounding Lombardy region, which has endured an unusually early heat wave and months without significant rainfall, the Associated Press reports.
Neighboring Emilia Romagna and Piedmont have undertaken similar crisis measures.
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said that the emergency ordinance covered only decorative fountains, and not those containing flora and fauna that need fresh water. It further limits the use of water sprinklers except for new-growth trees.
The situation is serious enough that the mayor has also decreed that shops in Italy’s business and fashion capital can’t set thermostats under 26 degrees Celsius (79 F), according to ABC News. The mayor’s decree also ordered businesses to keep their doors closed to avoid overtaxing the power grid.
Mayor Sala took to Facebook to ask Milanese to do their part and reduce water use as much as possible at home, in private gardens, and even when cleaning terraces and courtyards.
Archbishop Mario Delpini made a pilgrimage Saturday to pray for “the gift of rain,” visiting three churches that serve the farming communities on the outskirts of Milan. He recited the rosary and used holy water to bless a field in front of the St. Martin Olearo di Mediglia church.
Italy’s water crisis is getting worse
While the excessive heat and drought are to blame for Italy’s current water crisis, Italy has a notoriously wasteful water infrastructure that the national statistics agency ISTAT estimates lose 42 percent of drinking water from distribution networks each year, largely due to old and poorly maintained pipes.
As several aquifers and wells dry up, large areas are experiencing extreme water shortages. Some residents of Piedmont and Lombardy may soon face nighttime bans on water use recommended by the local utility.
Hundreds of towns and cities across the north have already passed various ordinances calling for water rationing, while other municipalities are warning of possible water rationing.
The Po River stretches 652 kilometers (405 miles) from the Alps in Piedmont right across northern Italy to reach the wild oasis of the Po Delta and the Adriatic Sea on the east coast.
And according to Reuters, the ANBI irrigation body says, “The Po continues to record an Epoque-making low along its entire course. The flow rate has halved in two weeks, dropping to just over 170 cubic meters per second,” it said, adding that the rate needed to be at 450 cm/s to prevent salt water entering from the sea and wrecking farmland.
ANBI also notes that the Tiber river is at multi-year lows while the flow rate of the Aniene river has halved.
The weather forecast for the rest of June is adding to the concern, with temperatures expected to be 10C-12C above normal next week, with peaks of up to 44C (111.2F) expected on the islands of Sardinia and Sicily.