Sicilians Deal So Well With Drought That Tourists Don’t Notice. A Record Dry Year Could Alter That

Lakes are dry and fields are scorched by heat in Sicily, but water is still gushing copiously for tourists.

After an almost totally rain-free year on the Italian island, fountains inside Agrigento’s famous archaeological park are still flowing, and pools in rows of hotels are full.

Like many Mediterranean islands, people in Sicily are used to long spells without rain, but human-caused climate change has made weather more erratic, and droughts can be longer and more frequent. Islanders are surviving as they have for decades – they store as much as they can in cisterns and use tankers to deliver water – and do it so well visitors that don’t feel the difference. But this year, the drought has gotten so bad that it’s putting residents at even greater risk, even as water still flows to hotels and tourist sites.

Lakes are dry and fields are scorched by heat in Sicily, but water is still gushing copiously for tourists.

After an almost totally rain-free year on the Italian island, fountains inside Agrigento’s famous archaeological park are still flowing, and pools in rows of hotels are full.

Like many Mediterranean islands, people in Sicily are used to long spells without rain, but human-caused climate change has made weather more erratic, and droughts can be longer and more frequent. Islanders are surviving as they have for decades – they store as much as they can in cisterns and use tankers to deliver water – and do it so well visitors that don’t feel the difference. But this year, the drought has gotten so bad that it’s putting residents at even greater risk, even as water still flows to hotels and tourist sites.

Fanaco Lake that provides water to a vast part of souther Sicily, including the city of Agrigento, shows the extremely low level of it’s water after a winter with very scarse precipitations, in Castronovo di Sicilia, central Sicily, Italy, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

But Agrigento residents are among the most drought-resilient in Italy, and even with rationing, they still run their businesses, hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, and households without missing a shower, neglecting their garden or closing the swimming pool.

“Nobody can cope with water shortage better than southern Sicilians,” said Salvatore Cocina, head of the local civil protection, who has the hard task of coordinating what little water is left on the island.

Visitors refresh at a drinking fountain in the Valley of the Temples archeological park, in Agrigento, southern Sicily, Italy, Thursday, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Water scarcity is not new as southern Sicily’s terrain does not hold much water and the aqueducts are leaking. The region is also prone to dry spells, particularly in the summer.

Most residents own a private cistern that can hold at least a thousand liters (264 gallons) of water. The city’s rooftops are dotted with large plastic tanks, and just as many are underground in gardens and basements.

Despite the water emergency, tourists continue to flock to the beautiful beaches of southern Sicily and line up to admire the vestiges of ancient Greek colonies.

“I did not have any problem with water,” said New Zealand tourist Iain Topp, as he sweated under the blazing sun during a visit to the 2,500-year-old temple of Concord. But he added that he was “told to conserve water because there could be a shortage.”

Gianluca, an Italian tourist from Lodi who didn’t give his last name, said “there are no problems with drought” in his experience and “at my hotel, they told me they have their own reserves, their cisterns.”

The Valley of Temples archaeological site, which its director said drew in over a million visitors last year, has also been prioritized, so doesn’t suffer from water scarcity.

“We have water 24/7,” explained director Roberto Sciarratta. “Our archaeologists are at work, the valley is open also at night with theater plays. We have no problems with water supplies.”

Meanwhile, water-scarce residents’ tactics are working reasonably well for now, but they have been facing exceptionally difficult circumstances.

2024 has been the worst year for rainfall in more than 20 years according to the civil protection regional department. Lake Fanaco, which supplies water to Agrigento province, used to collect up to 18 million cubic meters of water during an average rainy season, which normally runs from September to April. But by April the lake’s water was already below 2 million cubic meters and is now almost completely dry.

In May, the national government declared a state of emergency for drought and allocated 20 million euros ($21.7 million) to buy water tankers and dig new wells.

And temperatures in southern Sicily are currently 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) warmer than the 1991-2020 average, according to the Climate Shift Index, meaning water is quick to evaporate.

“If it does not rain in September, we will have to start tapping critical reserves, and wells and aquifers will also go below critical levels, not just our lakes,” said Cocina.

Solutions stretched thin

Salvatore Di Maria’s phone rarely stops ringing. He is a driver and owner of one of the main water tanker fleets in the area.

On a recent hot day, Di Maria picked up his phone as he filled his gleaming blue tanker at a public water station to yet another customer.

“I need 12,000 liters (3,170 gallons) of water,” said the voice on the other end, calling from a tourist resort.

“There is a waiting list of 10 to 15 days,” Di Maria answered.

A worker refills a water tanker at the Aica, Azienda Idrica Comuni Agrigentini, Agrigento municipalities water company, before going to supply a holiday resort in the nearby town of Porto Empedocle, in southern Sicily, Italy, Thursday, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Everyone asks him for water. Everyone wants to make sure they will not run out of water. Everyone wants to have full cisterns. And tankers are the best way to deliver the precious water directly to residents without leaks.

Dozens of tanker drivers speed along the winding roads delivering water to priority areas as determined by the local water company, AICA. Higher priority groups are sick or elderly people, hospitals, and several key businesses, such as hotels.

“The drought emergency was a wakeup call,” explained Settimio Cantone, president of AICA. “Our aqueduct leaks 50 to 60 percent of its water.”

“We are now digging new wells, fixing the entire waterworks and reactivating a desalination plant with the emergency funds. This will make our province more independent,” he said.

“Sicily is so vulnerable due to leaky pipes and obsolete and undersized infrastructures. It is not just climate,” said Giulio Boccaletti, scientific director of Euro-Mediterranean center on climate change.

In between visits from water tankers, several Agrigento residents make frequent trips to the only public fountain left open in town to fill their jerrycans on the way home.

Nuccio Navarra is one of those residents, filling up jerrycans from the Bonamorone fountain two or three times a day. “In my house we receive water every 15 days and the pressure is very low, and those who live on the upper floors cannot fill the cisterns,” he said.

Climate scientist Boccaletti fears for the future, although he noted that fixing water infrastructure and investing to adapt agriculture and engineering as AICA hopes to do could offset some concerns.

The Mediterranean basin “will experience higher temperatures, less rainfall and continued sea level rise during the coming decades,” according to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The group dubbed the region a “climate change hotspot” due to the vulnerability of human society and ecosystems.

“What used to be extraordinary is the new normal,” said Boccaletti.

BY PAOLO SANTALUCIA, AP

Storm Breaches California River’s Levee, Thousands Evacuate

A Northern California agricultural community famous for its strawberry crop was forced to evacuate early Saturday after the Pajaro River’s levee was breached by flooding from a new atmospheric river that pummeled the state.

Across the Central Coast’s Monterey County, more than 8,500 people were under evacuation orders and warnings Saturday, including roughly 1,700 residents — many of them Latino farmworkers — from the unincorporated community of Pajaro.

Officials said the Pajaro River’s levee breach is about 100 feet (30.48 meters) wide. Crews had gone door to door Friday afternoon to urge residents to leave before the rains came but some stayed and had to be pulled from floodwaters early Saturday.

First responders and the California National Guard rescued more than 50 people overnight. One video showed a member of the Guard helping a driver out of a car trapped by water up to their waists.

“We were hoping to avoid and prevent this situation, but the worst case scenario has arrived with the Pajaro River overtopping and levee breaching at about midnight,” wrote Luis Alejo, chair of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, on Twitter.

Alejo called the flooding “massive,” saying the damage will take months to repair.

The Pajaro River separates the counties of Santa Cruz and Monterey in the area that flooded Saturday. Floodwaters that got into the region’s wells might be contaminated with chemicals, officials said, and residents were told not to drink or cook with tap water for fear of illness.

Officials had been working along the levee in the hopes of shoring it up when it was breached around midnight Friday into Saturday. Crews began working to fix the levee around daybreak Saturday as residents slept in evacuation centers.

Oliver Gonzalez, 12, told The Associated Press that he, his mother and his aunt were rescued around 5 a.m. Saturday in Parajo. He grabbed his laptop, cellphone and some important documents but so much was left behind in their rush to leave.

“I’m kinda scared,” he said several hours later from an evacuation center in nearby Watsonville. “My mom’s car was left in the water.”
Across the Central Coast’s Monterey County, more than 8,500 people were under evacuation orders and warnings Saturday, including roughly 1,700 residents — many of them Latino farmworkers — from the unincorporated community of Pajaro.

Officials said the Pajaro River’s levee breach is about 100 feet (30.48 meters) wide. Crews had gone door to door Friday afternoon to urge residents to leave before the rains came but some stayed and had to be pulled from floodwaters early Saturday.

First responders and the California National Guard rescued more than 50 people overnight. One video showed a member of the Guard helping a driver out of a car trapped by water up to their waists.

“We were hoping to avoid and prevent this situation, but the worst case scenario has arrived with the Pajaro River overtopping and levee breaching at about midnight,” wrote Luis Alejo, chair of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, on Twitter.

Alejo called the flooding “massive,” saying the damage will take months to repair.

The Pajaro River separates the counties of Santa Cruz and Monterey in the area that flooded Saturday. Floodwaters that got into the region’s wells might be contaminated with chemicals, officials said, and residents were told not to drink or cook with tap water for fear of illness.

Officials had been working along the levee in the hopes of shoring it up when it was breached around midnight Friday into Saturday. Crews began working to fix the levee around daybreak Saturday as residents slept in evacuation centers.

Oliver Gonzalez, 12, told The Associated Press that he, his mother and his aunt were rescued around 5 a.m. Saturday in Parajo. He grabbed his laptop, cellphone and some important documents but so much was left behind in their rush to leave.

“I’m kinda scared,” he said several hours later from an evacuation center in nearby Watsonville. “My mom’s car was left in the water.”

Anais Rodriguez, 37, said first responders knocked on her home’s door shortly after midnight. Her family packed about four days’ worth of clothing and drove out to safety. She and her two children, her husband and her parents — along with their dog, Mila — arrived at the shelter about an hour later with few answers about what this would mean for their community going forward.

Weather-related power outages affected more than 17,000 customers in Monterey County late Saturday, according to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office on Saturday said it was monitoring the situation in Pajaro.

“Our thoughts are with everyone impacted and the state has mobilized to support the community,” the governor’s office wrote on Twitter.

The Pajaro Valley is a coastal agricultural area known for growing strawberries, apples, cauliflower, broccoli and artichokes. National brands like Driscoll’s Strawberries and Martinelli’s are headquartered in the region.

In 1995, the Pajaro River’s levees broke, submerging 2,500 acres (1,011 hectares) of farmland and the community of Pajaro. Two peopled died and the flooding caused nearly $100 million in damage. A state law, passed last year, advanced state funds for a levee project. It was scheduled to start construction in 2024.

State Sen. John Laird, who spearheaded the law and represents the area, said the project is fully funded now but it just came down to bad timing with this year’s rains.

“It’s tragic, we were so close to getting this done before any storms,” he said.

This week’s storm marked the state’s 10th atmospheric river of the winter, storms that have brought enormous amounts of rain and snow to the state and helped lessen the drought conditions that had dragged on for three years. State reservoirs that had dipped to strikingly low levels are now well above the average for this time of year, prompting state officials to release water from dams to assist with flood control and make room for even more rain.

Across the state on Saturday, Californians contended with drenching rains and rising water levels in the atmospheric river’s aftermath. In Tulare County, the sheriff ordered residents who live near the Tule River to evacuate, while people near the Poso Creek in Kern County were under an evacuation warning. The National Weather Service’s meteorologists issued flood warnings and advisories, begging motorists to stay off deluged roadways.

In San Francisco, an 85-foot (25.91 meter) eucalyptus tree fell onto the Trocadero Clubhouse early Saturday morning. The 1892 clubhouse, a San Francisco historical landmark, was left severely damaged, with part of the roof crushed and the inside flooded.

Funnel clouds were spotted in the Jamestown area — the heart of California’s Gold Rush — on Saturday afternoon and the weather service issued a tornado warning — later canceled — for the Sierra Nevada foothills as severe thunderstorms, hail and high winds blanketed the region. Another set of tornado warnings were briefly issued in Fresno Count y, nearly 100 miles (160.93 kilometers) south of Gold Country. Flash flooding warnings were in effect late Saturday in Tuolumne County, with roads submerged around Sonora and neighboring communities.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Newsom has declared emergencies in 34 counties in recent weeks, and the Biden administration approved a presidential disaster declaration for some on Friday morning, a move that will bring more federal assistance. President Biden spoke with Newsom on Saturday to pledge the federal government’s support in California’s response to the emergency, the White House said.

The atmospheric river, known as a “Pineapple Express” because it brought warm subtropical moisture across the Pacific from near Hawaii, was melting lower parts of the huge snowpack built in California’s mountains.

Yet another atmospheric river is already in the forecast for early next week. State climatologist Michael Anderson said a third appeared to be taking shape over the Pacific and possibly a fourth.

California appeared to be “well on its way to a fourth year of drought” before the early winter series of storms, Anderson said Friday. “We’re in a very different condition now,” he added.

The National Weather Service on Saturday forecasted an intensified bout of rain and snow Monday through Wednesday, with considerable flooding possible along the state’s central coast, San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys and the southern Sierra Nevada foothills into midweek.

Another round of heavy, wet snow is expected to hit the Sierras and areas of high elevation mid-week, the weather service said. Officials reported about 32 inches (81 centimeters) of snow had fallen by Saturday morning at the Mount Rose ski resort on the edge of Reno, Nevada.

By NIC COURY and STEFANIE DAZIO

African Wildlife Parks Face Climate, Infrastructure Threats

MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — Africa’s national parks, home to thousands of wildlife species such as lions, elephants and buffaloes, are increasingly threatened by below-average rainfall and new infrastructure projects.

A prolonged drought in much of the continent’s east, exacerbated by climate change, and large-scale developments, including oil drilling and livestock grazing, are hampering conservation efforts in protected areas, several environmental experts say.

The at-risk parks stretch all the way from Kenya in the east — home to Tsavo and Nairobi national parks — south to the Mkomazi and Serengeti parks in Tanzania, the Quirimbas and Gorongosa parks in Mozambique and the famous Kruger National Park in South Africa, and west to the Kahuzi Biega, Salonga and Virunga reserves in Congo.

The parks not only protect flora and fauna but also act as natural carbon sinks — storing carbon dioxide emitted into the air and reducing the effects of global warming.

An estimated 38% of Africa’s biodiversity areas are under severe threat from climate change and infrastructure development, said Ken Mwathe of BirdLife International.

“Key biodiversity areas over the years, especially in Africa, have been regarded by investors as idle and ready for development,” said Mwathe. “Governments allocate land in these areas for infrastructural development.”

He added that the “powerlines and other energy infrastructure cause collisions with birds, due to low visibility. The numbers killed this way are not few.”

In their quest to bolster living standards and achieve sustainable development goals, such as access to clean water and food, boosting jobs and economic growth and improving the quality of education, African governments have set their sights on large building projects, many of them funded by foreign investments, especially by China.

The proposed East African Oil Pipeline, for example, which the Ugandan government says can help lift millions out of poverty, runs through Uganda’s Kidepo valley, Murchison Falls and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, threatening species and drawing criticism from climate campaigners.

The growth of urban populations and the building that goes with it, like new roads, electricity grids, gas pipes, ports and railways, have also added to the pressure on parks, conservationists said.

But they add that replacing wildlife with infrastructure is the wrong approach for economic growth.

“We have to have a future where wildlife is not separated from people,” said Sam Shaba, the program manager at the Honeyguide Foundation in Tanzania, an environmental non-profit organization.

When “people start to see that living with wildlife provides the answer to sustainable development ... that’s the game-changer,” said Shaba.

Most of Africa’s wildlife parks were created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by colonial regimes that fenced off the areas and ordered local people to stay out. But now conservationists are finding that a more inclusive approach to running the parks and seeking the expertise of Indigenous communities that live around the parks can help protect them, said Ademola Ajagbe, Africa regional managing director of The Nature Conservancy.

“The inhabitants of these areas are forcefully evicted or prevented from living there such as the Maasai (in Tanzania and Kenya), Twa and Mbutis (in central Africa) who for generations have lived with wildlife,” said Simon Counseill, an advisor with Survival International.

“Africa is depicted as a place of wildlife without people living there and this narrative needs to change,” he said.

“If we don’t pay attention to communities’ social needs, health, education and where they are getting water, we miss the key thing,” said John Kasaona the executive director of the Integrated Rural Development in Nature Conservation in Namibia.

The effects of worsening weather conditions in national parks due to climate change should also not be ignored, experts said.

A recent study conducted in Kruger National Park linked extreme weather events to the loss of plants and animals, unable cope with the drastic conditions and lack of water due to longer dry spells and hotter temperatures.

Drought has seriously threatened species like rhinos, elephants and lions as it reduces the amount of food available, said Philip Wandera, a former warden with the Kenya Wildlife Service who’s now range management lecturer at the Catholic University of East Africa.

More intensive management of parks and removing fences that prevent species from migrating to less drought-prone areas are important first steps to protecting wildlife, Wandera said.

He added that financial help to “support communities in and around national parks” would also help preserve them.