(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 17 - A full 20% of Italy's territory is at
risk of desertification, said ANBI, the national association of
consortiums that manage river and lake basins, on the occasion
of UN World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, which
takes place Thursday. It said new reservoirs must be built to
collect rainwater and work needs to be done to eliminate leaks
in aqueducts. The 2020 Drylands, Deserts and Desertification
Conference sponsored by Ben-Gurion University in Israel
confirmed that more than 1,300 hectares of arable land are lost
each year due to drought and desertification. According to the
World Atlas of Desertification, over 75% of the earth's surface
has already deteriorated and this figure could rise to 90% by
2050. In the European Union, 8% of land across 13 countries is
at risk of desertification. The areas most at risk are in Spain,
southern Italy, Malta, Cyprus, southeastern Greece and the areas
of Bulgaria and Romania along the Black Sea. The European Court
of Auditors estimated that the southern, central and eastern
areas of the continent face a high or very risk of
desertification. It said between 2008 and 2017, areas at high or
very high risk rose by 10.6%, increasing by 177,000 square km
for a total of 645,000 square km. ANBI Director General Massimo
Gargano highlighted the importance of the hydraulic network.
"The ecosystemic function of the 200,000 km of the hydraulic
network, which must be adapted to the climate crisis, is
essential," Gargano said. "Our Efficiency Plan for the Hydraulic
Network includes 729 operations for special maintenance, based
on defined, executive projects capable of creating nearly 12,000
jobs, thanks to an investment of nearly 2.365 billion euros," he
said. (ANSA).
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