Droughts, floods, and poor water quality. 30 percent of southern Europe already under permanent water stress

Brussels – In Italy, one in two citizens was affected by emergency water restrictions, especially in the north of the country. Also, 30 percent of people in southern Europe live under permanent water stress. The snapshot taken by the European Environment Agency (EEA) only confirms the violence with which climate change is already affecting much of the old continent. Starting with Italy: not only drought, but also flooding, and worsening water quality.

These are not new phenomena. However, they have increased in frequency and intensity in recent years. Between 1980 and 2022, there were 5,582 flood-related deaths in 32 European countries, and 702 people lost their lives due to fire. The lethality rate of floods and fires is increasing because more people live in areas potentially prone to such phenomena. According to the EEA report, about 53 million EU citizens – 12 percent of the European population – currently live in areas at risk of river flooding. This number increased by 935,000 between 2011 and 2021, “showing continuous development on floodplains.”

Even more pervasive is drought with a growing number of European regions under almost permanent water stress, and not just in the south, according to the EEA. During the summer, water stress affects up to 70 percent of Europeans. Over the past fifty years, also aided by population growth, renewable water resources per capita have plummeted by 24 percent. Also playing its part is the reduction in water quality, driven by rising air and water temperatures that facilitate the growth of pathogens, heavy rainfall events that “double the likelihood of concentrations of harmful pathogens in water bodies” due to contaminated runoff and sewage discharges combined, and from rising sea levels that, in low-lying areas, cause saline intrusion into groundwater and surface water aquifers.

Worsening climate change “will further increase people’s exposure to extreme weather events, with serious health consequences,” the EEA warns. The groups most exposed to health impacts from floods, droughts, fires, or waterborne diseases are old people, children, people in poor health, low-income groups, farmers, and emergency teams.

The alarm resonates loudly for farmers, as they are exposed to health and welfare risks associated with drought and water shortages also from an economic point of view. The EEA estimates that farms in Italy, Greece, Portugal, southern France, and Spain could suffer losses of up to 9 percent in value under a 1°C rise in global temperatures. According to this projection, the value of farmland in the regions of southern Europe will decline by more than 80 percent by 2100.

Italian farmers are at the greatest risk: according to the EU agency, “most of the loss of land value in the EU could be concentrated in Italy, where revenues of farms are very sensitive to seasonal changes in climate parameters.” This trend has been evident in recent years when drought and water shortages led to a 45 percent drop in corn and feed crops and a 30 percent reduction in wheat and rice production.