Bruno Fortea Miras |
Ispra (Italy) (EFE).- The lack of rain and high temperatures in southern Europe have opened the debate on water management in the Mediterranean region, where climate change is going to be especially drastic and scientists from the Union European Union (EU) rule out “miracle solutions” to preserve water.
“There is no miracle solution, we cannot solve a problem of this complexity and intensity in just one year. You have to deploy a range of solutions that, over time, create resilience for water”, comments a scientist from the Joint Research Center (JRC, for its acronym in English) in a chat with European journalists during a recent visit to the headquarters of this organization in Ispra (Italy) in which EFE participated.
What is the Joint Research Center?
The Joint Research Center defines itself as “the European Commission’s science and knowledge service”, since the researchers who work there, in fields ranging from nanomedicine to electric vehicles, have the mission of contributing to the European institutions studies, data and indicators that help to better design community policies.
In total, the entity has six branches spread across different EU countries, one of which is in Seville (Spain), but it is in the Italian branch of Ispra, a small town north of Milan that lives on the shores of Lake Maggiore, where the JRC houses a European Drought Observatory that analyzes all water issues.
According to their data, a quarter of the EU territory is currently in the drought alert phase, a situation that is linked to the fact that 2022 was, according to JRC analyses, the warmest in the last 500 years. in Europe.
Given the lack of heavy snowfall this winter in the Alps, which will leave very little water during the thaw, the JRC scientists predict that the coming weeks, before summer arrives, “will be key to defining the availability of water for agriculture ” in crops close to the Alps, such as the Italian Po Valley.
Difficulties in Spain, France and Italy
In a report last month on the drought, the center already warned about the lack of rain in Spain, France and northern Italy, and expressed its “concern” about the water supply in the two sectors most affected by the drought: agriculture and energy production, with its impact on hydroelectric plants.
In the opinion of the JRC, if in the threatened areas the conditions for practicing agriculture become more complicated, “this will require a response” from the authorities.
And this response involves “more investments” that promote precision agriculture, with the implementation of saving techniques such as drip irrigation, while, on a general level, this expert in water management is committed to economically profitable and adapted solutions. to local needs.
Intervene in ecosystems
Apart from desalination, which is a more expensive process and only suitable for coastal areas, or water recycling, the JRC scientists insist on the benefits of the so-called “nature-based solutions”, which consist of intervening in the ecosystems to preserve water flow and soil moisture.
“If you have a healthy forest, you have healthy soils. If you preserve the wetlands, they will work as a natural buffer against drought and also against floods”, they are also free, they say in the JRC about some strategies that are promoted from Brussels.
“There is a worrying situation and a negative trend, but now we have some paths on how to find solutions: closer collaboration with cities and regions and a multidisciplinary approach with different sectors,” said the European Commissioner for Innovation and Research, Mariya Gabriel, during the visit. to the JRC.
Be that as it may, the risk of desertification extends to Mediterranean areas such as southern Spain, which will be one of the most vulnerable places in the EU at a climate level according to projections by the Joint Research Centre, whose researchers recall that there is less and less time to waste trying to reverse these trends.