Mortara

• Italy
• The worst drought Italy has faced in 70 years is thirsting paddy fields in the river Po valley and jeopardizing the harvest of the premium rice.
• Italy’s largest river is turning into a long stretch of sand due to the lack of rain, leaving the Lomellina rice flats — nestled between the river Po and the Alps — without the necessary water to flood the paddies.
• The lack of rainfall has brought governors of various Italian regions to declare a state of emergency in order to conserve water and coordinate the management of minimal resources.
• The region’s main water sources, the rivers Po and Dora Baltea, are eight times lower than the average seasonal levels.

Po River Basin

• The Po River is the longest river in Italy (661 km)
• It originates from Pian del Re of Monte Viso, and flows eastward till the Adriatic Sea near Venice
• The basin population is close to 17 million inhabitants, almost 1/3 of the population of Italy.
• The main land use of the Po plain is intensive agriculture.
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