‘The land is becoming desert’: drought pushes Sicily’s farming heritage to the brink | Climate crisis

For the first time in four generations of his family’s farming history, Vito Amantia’s threshers have lain silent this year. The 650,000kg of wheat that his farm would usually produce in a year has been lost, parched and withered under the scorching sun and relentless drought.

“A seasoned farmer doesn’t need to check the weather forecast to understand what the weather will be like,” says Amantia, 68, who farms on the Catania plain in eastern Sicily. “Already last January, I knew it would be a disastrous year. The wheat seedlings that normally reached 80cm stopped at 5cm. Then they dried up.”

Sicily is grappling with one of the most serious water crises in its history. The island, the largest and most populous in the Mediterranean, where a European record high temperature of 48.8C was reached in 2021, is at risk of desertification. In the last six months of 2023, only 150mm of rain fell, and in May, the government in Rome declared a state of emergency.

But while it poses an existential threat for many local people, the water crisis isn’t deterring tourists. Like many parts of southern Europe, Sicily finds itself caught between water scarcity and a soaring influx of visitors who, despite the additional pressure they place on resources, remain appreciated as one of the main drivers of the economy.

“Tourist destinations in southern Europe, such as Spain and Sicily, have always been popular choices among travellers,” says Christian Mulder, a professor of ecology and climate emergency at the University of Catania. “The average tourist seeks the sun, regardless of the lack of water, and demands that water be readily available. Overtourism increases pressure on Sicily’s already scarce water resources, with inevitable consequences for the environment.”

Because of the climate emergency, according to the Italian National Research Council, a staggering 70% of Sicily is at risk of desertification. Most of the island’s lakes are already almost dry. The artificial lake of Fanaco, in central Sicily, once had a capacity of 20m cubic metres of water, but today holds just 300,000. Reduced to mere mud puddles, reservoirs emanate a strong smell of dead and rotting fish.

Faced with water rationing, businesses have been forced to shut down and thousands of families are storing supplies of water containers in their homes for washing or cooking. According to the National Association of the Agricultural Water Board, some reservoirs designated for drinking water were operating at just 10% of capacity in March.

“This is an unprecedented drought emergency,” said Sicily’s governor, Renato Schifani.

Coupled with drought, summer wildfires have also destroyed vegetation. Last year, according to a regional civil protection agency estimate, fires caused over €60m (£51m) worth of damage, with more than 693 hectares (1,712 acres) of woodland on the island pulverised. Between Monday and Tuesday, at least 10 fires across the island have destroyed dozens of hectares of forests, pine groves, and farmland.

Coldiretti, Italy’s biggest farmers’ association, is striving to support the agricultural sector by dipping into its own pockets to refill artificial lakes using tankers. But this effort alone is insufficient.

The scale of the challenge is evident on a journey through the Sicilian hinterland, where the only signs of life are small herds of skeletal cattle sprawled across the arid hills. Here, temperatures soar above 40C during daylight hours. There is no longer any water for livestock to drink. According to the association of young agricultural entrepreneurs, drought is driving young Sicilian farmers off the island, while dozens of breeders have been forced to sell or slaughter their livestock.

Liborio Mangiapane, a 60-year-old farmer who owns 100 cows and 150 goats on land in the countryside around Cammarata, in the province of Agrigento, says that if the situation does not improve, he will have to cull.

“Without water, my cows no longer produce milk,” Mangiapane says. “The land is slowly becoming desertified. Even in our own family, we are forced to shower and cook using bottled water because there is no running water left.”

This is not the experience of most visitors, even if behind the scenes the hospitality sector is grappling with how to continue to protect them from it. Despite the water crisis, Sicily’s many hotels, resorts and B&Bs remain bustling, the streets of the main cities are teeming with tourists, restaurants are fully booked and beaches are packed with thousands of people. There are long queues to visit museums, churches and monuments.

“I knew about the water crisis. Some friends here in Sicily told me that the situation wasn’t extreme, that’s why I decided to come,” says Loretta Sebastiani, 25, from Rome. “As for the heat, I’m used to the stifling heat of the capital.”

Gerardo Schuler, the president of the main hotel association, Federalberghi, in Taormina, which has become one of the most sought-after local destinations after it was featured in the TV show The White Lotus, has said hotels in the city are “at 95% capacity.”

“There have been no cancellations or major disruptions,” says Nico Torrisi, the president of Federalberghi Sicilia and chief executive of Catania and Comiso airports in the east, “but it is clear that some facilities are facing difficulties, especially in the province of Agrigento, where some B&B owners have encountered water supply issues. The problem is that in Sicily, the climate has been changing for years and we have to get used to the fact that every summer will bring extreme heat and drought.”

Rather than putting people off, however, visitors continue to come. According to figures collected by the Data Appeal Company at the two main Sicilian airports, Palermo and Catania, there has been an increase in flights to the island in August, up 20% and 16% respectively on last year.

Some hotels and B&Bs have prepared in advance for a dry season by installing water tanks on their premises, while others have had to resort to private water truck services to fill their tanks at their own expense.

“We wake up every morning to check the water levels in our tanks,” says Francesco Picarella, the president of Federalberghi in Agrigento. “Tourists are not fleeing the Sicilian cities at all. However, some hotels and B&Bs are facing difficulties in managing water and ensuring daily water supply to their guests.”

Traditionally, drinking water in the island is sourced from aquifers, subterranean rock layers saturated with water, while water for agriculture is stored in large tanks constructed after the second world war. Both systems rely on winter rainfall, which is increasingly scarce. And for three decades, essential maintenance to the irrigation network has been neglected.

“While large hotels in the drought-affected areas, like the province of Agrigento, have a range of infrastructure in place to provide water to their guests, smaller businesses with fewer resources are suffering,” Mulder says.

Giuseppe Friscia, who runs a B&B in Sciacca in Agrigento province, has bought a warehouse where he has installed water tanks capable of holding up to 10,000 litres. “Some B&Bs are forced to call private water trucks and pay €90(£77) each time to fill their tanks,’’ he says.

The discovery of a subterranean aquifer in November last year represents an important potential resource. Geologists identified the underground basin at approximately 800 metres beneath the Iblei mountains in the province of Ragusa. It is thought to contain around 17bn cubic metres of water.

“If the analysis confirms its usability, this huge reservoir could represent an extraordinary resource for the medium and long term,” said Schifani.

The basin is located just a few dozen kilometres from the lands of Catania farmer Vito Amantia, but he is not getting carried away with false hopes. The farmer knows that the future of his work and that of the entire island is hanging by a thread.

“They’d better hurry,” he says. “They’d better realise that this is a ticking timebomb.”