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The drought has gotten so bad that it’s putting residents at even greater risk
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Lakes are dry and fields are scorched, but unlike elsewhere in Europe, water is still gushing for tourists in Sicily
After an almost totally rain-free year on the Italian island
fountains inside Agrigento's famous archaeological park are still flowing
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
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
The local water basin authority has tightly rationed water for almost a million residents – they are allowed as little as two to four hours a week — to get through the summer
the first Italian navy tanker ship arrived to supply 12 million liters (3.2 million gallons) of water to the most affected residents
But Agrigento residents are among the most drought-resilient in Italy
neglecting their garden or closing the swimming pool
Read more: Best Sicily hotels
“Nobody can cope with water shortage better than southern Sicilians,” said Salvatore Cocina
who has the hard task of coordinating what little water is left on the island
Water scarcity is not new as southern Sicily’s terrain does not hold much water and the aqueducts are leaking
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.
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.
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.
Tourists sit on the beach of the sea town of Porto Empedocle, in southern Sicily, Italy, Thursday, July 18, 2024
which runs most of Italy's gas storage business
has stakes in all three LNG terminals operating in Italy
Eni has an extensive worldwide LNG business.The Italian state is the largest shareholder in Eni
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Migrants in Lampedusa's Porto Vecchio wait to be transferred by ferry to Porto Empedocle
from where they will be sent to reception centers across the country
a period when Lampedusa declared a state of emergency due to an influx of about 7,000 migrants in a few days
Italy — The small harbor in Lampedusa is crowded with a fleet of dilapidated wooden and metal smuggler's boats
filthy clothes and plastic water bottles float in the sea
It's the debris of thousands of migrants who recently arrived on the shores of this small Italian island
Lampedusa is the closest piece of European territory to North Africa
so many migrants who make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean land there first
aid workers and medical staff — pale from lack of sleep — help men and families clamber out of two more boats that just arrived from Tunisia
Some 12,000 people — more than twice the population of this island — arrived here in a single week this month
walked into Lampedusa town in search of help
They crowded streets lined with restaurants and trinket shops for tourists
Boats used by migrants to arrive at Lampedusa are transported to the port
Lampedusans attend a public assembly in Freedom Square to protest the management of migration flows by local and national authorities on Sept
Many opened their doors to give the migrants a place to wash
And the owner of one ice cream shop handed out gelato
What else are we meant to do?" says Mario Verde
a resident sitting with friends on a stone bench in the main square
Migrants enter a ferry boarding under the control of police and Italian Red Cross workers
who distribute water and basic items in Lampedusa
Two Syrian migrants wait to be transferred to Sicily by ferry in Lampedusa
although there's sympathy for the migrants
there are separate gynecologists to treat migrants and local women
The decision is intended to show all patients are equal
"so that no pregnant woman comes across as superior to the other," explains Moussa Koulibaly
Koulibaly works for the local authority as an interpreter between the Italian emergency services and migrants
many of whom speak French and tribal languages
He arrived in Italy from Guinea in 2017 and has since coauthored a book about how he managed to integrate into society through taekwando
"Sport helps unify people," he says in his now-perfect Italian
it was extremely difficult — psychologically
Now he tries to help those he meets through his work
Moussa Koulibaly offers help at the port of Lampedusa
they sometimes tut and hiss and kiss their teeth to catch someone's attention
This is normal in lots of African countries," he says
the situation has infuriated many who want the Italian government to do more to stop the arrivals
a group of local men and woman are in a heated debate
"We have to unite the people to take action," says a bearded
a musician and puppet master originally from the island
who made headlines days earlier as he and others blocked the convoy of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
She was visiting the island with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyden
in response to local panic after some 7,000 migrants landed in a single day
Meloni campaigned on a promise to reduce migration to Italy — a commitment she hasn't been able to keep
she stepped out of the car to speak with Sferlazzo
Migrants in Lampedusa's Porto Vecchio wait to be transferred to Porto Empedocle
Migrants in Lampedusa's Porto Vecchio wait to be transferred by ferry to Porto Empedocle and then sent to reception centers
and vowed to do everything possible to let islanders enjoy their annual festival of the Madonna of Lampedusa without interruption from more migrant arrivals and visits by politicians seeking photo ops
Meloni announced a decision to extend the time some migrants can be kept in detention centers before being repatriated
But the policy only applies to those who have been through the lengthy asylum process and are slated for deportation — a tiny minority of those who land in Italy
Sferlazzo describes himself as a Marxist-Leninist
he's formed what might seem an unlikely union with Lucia
Their plan is to stop Lampedusa from becoming what he calls "a military zone."
Lucia is with Italy's right-wing Lega party
naval and police outfits that have a presence on the island because of the migrant arrivals
He says the island lives off tourism and fishing and he doesn't want that to change
Migrants who land on Lampedusa now are swiftly taken by Italian authorities to larger reception centers in Sicily or Italy's mainland
But Sferlazzo and Lucia fear that the government wants to expands Lampedusa's capacity for housing migrants — possibly leading to the island becoming a reception center for migrants
who could spend years waiting for requests for asylum to be processed
cannot carry the weight of the world," says Sferlazzo
There's little evidence that this is the government's plan
But islanders are so sensitive to the possibility that when authorities sent a shipment of tents intended for migrants this month
"We decided to go down to the street and call on the population of Lampedusa," says Lucia
they marched to the port and managed to stop the ship from docking
"We will not let Lampedusa become Alcatraz," Lucia says
The puppet show organized by Giacomo Sferlazzo revisits the 16th century story of Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto
a love story set against the backdrop of an invasion of Europe by armies from the Middle East
crowds gather to watch a puppet show Sferlazzo has brought to the island
It recounts the 16th century tale of Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto
a love story set to the backdrop of an invasion of Europe by armies from the Middle East
Sferlazzo says he's against war and wants "dialogue with the people of the Mediterranean."
But his decision to put on this show feels to some in the audience too much like coincidence
and the underlying message is clear: Just like the response to the migrant crisis by many of Europe's governments
Lampedusans won't let their island become the migrants' new home
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Cyprus migrants face wave of attacks as hostility brews
.st1{fill-rule:evenodd;clip-rule:evenodd;fill:#2a2a2a}By Staten Island Advance StaffSTATEN ISLAND
- Longtime Sunnyside resident Vincenza Filippino
the loving matriarch of four generations of family
died Sunday in Staten Island University Hospital
Born Vincenza DiFilippo in Porto Empedocle
she immigrated to the United States in 1956
She settled in Sunnyside in 1972 and lived there until entering Clove Lakes Health Care and Rehabilitation Center
Filippino also worked as a seamstress for Milo Co.
She was a member of the Arrochar Friendship Club
Filippino enjoyed playing bingo and cards and visits to Atlantic City
Maria Carone and Josephine Giordano; 11 grandchildren; 27 great-grandchildren
The funeral will be Wednesday from the Martin Hughes Funeral Home
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February 2015.(Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images)Characterising the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean as a humanitarian concern only tells part of the story
journalist Alex Perry explains to Late Night Live
It’s also an issue with organised crime at its heart.LoadingJournalist Alex Perry was in Sicily when he was struck by how organised the system was
A group of migrants had just been rescued by the Italian navy as they were trying to cross the Mediterranean from Africa
As an International Organisation for Migration official tried to explain their rights and choices
he saw one person among each group get out a mobile phone
‘The moment all these guys came off the ship
there was one person inside each group who was texting
“I know what’s going on here,"’ he says
By thinking this is a public order problem
This was a problem of billion-dollar international businesses that demanded very specialised skills to investigate and interdict
‘We were on Sicily with a whole bunch of TV crews and reporters around the world who were simply telling the story of the migrant story as a humanitarian concern—which it is
You’ve had nearly 2,000 people die in the Mediterranean this year alone,’ Perry says
the answer to the question “why are so many hundreds of thousands of people heading to Sicily?” is
because criminal organisations in Africa and Italy are making billions of dollars out of them.’
In a Newsweek investigation with former ABC journalist Connie Agius
Perry traced the people behind the trafficking networks
and how the Italian Mafia exploits migrants once they make it onto land in Italy
One of the men he met was prosecutor Calogero Ferrara
who got involved in October 2013 after 366 people were killed when a boat sank off Lampedusa
the Italian island that is the closest part of Europe to the coast of North Africa
the anti-Mafia prosecutors—who are a kind of elite force in Italy and very separate from the state
because often they’re investigating the state itself—took it upon themselves to make the argument that this was organised crime
so therefore it was their jurisdiction,’ Perry says
‘Their argument is that by thinking this is a public order problem or a humanitarian problem
This was a problem of billion dollar international businesses that demanded very specialised skills to investigate and interdict
Calogero and a number of other anti-Mafia prosecutors around Italy began taking on this problem.’
Perry says they discovered the organised crime was not only happening on Italian territory—but in fact involved many Italians as well
is riddled with corruption from the inside
to the point where the Italian mafia have infiltrated the state
and have infiltrated the immigration handling mechanisms in Italy
so that Mafia-related firms will win contracts for building centres
for giving them language classes,’ he says
Read more: Behind the scenes with a Libyan people smuggling boss
a gang which is accused of everything from manipulating contracts for garbage collection and park maintenance to vote rigging
‘They’re accused of infiltrating all parts of the Rome government
but what’s particularly interesting is the way that they infiltrated the immigration system in Italy and skewed it into a system of corruption rather than a system for dealing with migrants,’ he says
but they do that by having their guys inside the system
ensuring that their companies win the contracts
‘They are so much a part of the system that it’s almost impossible to distinguish them
One of the main problems I had talking to the prosecutors is that they find it very difficult to define the crime
The crime really is in the rigging of the contract
Perry says it is part of the way the Mafia has transformed and maintained its profitability
And this guy’s making more money out of people
‘That comparison to drugs is quite apposite
or even if you look at the politicians who are using people as an issue from which to make a political point—people have become a commodity here
That’s the really truly frightening thing.’
This article contains content that is not available
From razor-sharp analysis of current events to the hottest debates in politics, science, philosophy and culture, Late Night Live puts you firmly in the big picture.
capsizing the craft and pitching everyone into the sea where hundreds died
an official said on Wednesday.Survivors arrive at the Sicilian Porto Empedocle harbor
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Italy has authorised charity vessel Ocean Viking to disembark 180 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean in Sicily
ship operator SOS Mediterranee said on Sunday
"We have received instructions from the Italian maritime authorities to disembark those on board in Porto Empedocle," a spokesman for the charity told AFP
The Ocean Viking is now heading for the port where it expects to arrive by Monday
Italy said on Saturday that medics were testing the migrants before they would be transferred to a quarantine vessel in Sicily
They have been on the Ocean Viking for over a week
with fights and suicide attempts on board prompting the charity to declare a state of emergency on Friday
the migrants are expected to be transferred to the Moby Zaza quarantine ship in Porto Empedocle
which has been in limbo in the Mediterranean south of Sicily
has been waiting for permission from Italy or Malta to offload the migrants at a safe port.
with the migrants increasingly desperate to reach land
Others have become distraught at not being able to telephone their families to let them know they were safe
were picked up after fleeing Libya in four separate rescues by the Ocean Viking on June 25 and 30.
More than 100,000 migrants tried to cross the Mediterranean last year with more than 1,200 dying in the attempt
according to the International Organization for Migration
The arrival of summer and more favourable conditions at sea may lead to an increase of attempts to cross the Mediterranean with the hope of arriving in Europe
The historic training ship Amerigo Vespucci has made its return to Porto Empedocle
an event that marks a moment of great pride for the local community
This landing is particularly significant since it coincides with the proclamation of Agrigento as the Italian capital of culture for 2025
known throughout the world as 'the most beautiful ship in the world'
was welcomed with enthusiasm by citizens and tourists
eager to visit it and discover its fascinating history
demonstrating the interest and passion of the people for this symbol of the Italian Navy
a photography exhibition was set up at the maritime station of Porto Empedocle
while paying homage to the Amerigo Vespucci and its connection to the sea
expressed his enthusiasm for the arrival of the ship
stressing the importance of this event for the city and the province
He also thanked the Minister of Defense and other authorities for making this visit possible
added that the arrival of the Amerigo Vespucci coincides with the centenary of the birth of Andrea Camilleri
a great writer and fellow citizen who dedicated many of his works to the sea and Sicilian culture
This connection between the ship and the local culture makes the event even more special
transforming Porto Empedocle into a stage for celebration and reflection on the maritime and cultural history of the region
Notizie.it is a newspaper registered with the Court of Milan n.68 on 01/03/2018
Impara come descrivere lo scopo dell'immagine (si apre in una nuova scheda)
Lascia vuoto se l'immagine è puramente decorativa