Andrea Rinaldo, the Italian scientist who won the prestigious Stockholm Water Prize, otherwise known as the "Nobel of Water", has made a shocking prediction about the future of drinking water and the fate of Venice.
He says that climate change is unstoppable and will bring increasingly frequent floods and droughts.
Rinaldo points out that the distribution of water in the world is uneven. A person in Europe consumes an average of 260 liters of water per day, while in sub-Saharan Africa a woman has access to only 25 liters, enough to carry over her head from a distant well.
Italy has a degraded water network, with losses of up to 66% of water in some regions. Meanwhile, pollution with chemicals like PFAS has left many water sources permanently contaminated.
According to Rinaldo, humanity is not understanding how important this problem is. Asked whether we will continue to have water to drink, Rinaldo does not give a clear answer, but says that the scenarios are "one worse than the other . "
According to him, humanity is walking "with its eyes closed and the lights off" towards an uncertain future.
Recalling the catastrophic flooding of Venice in 1966, he stresses that such disasters will happen more and more often. “Global warming is changing everything very quickly. We can’t stop it anymore.”
According to him, due to greenhouse gas emissions and rising temperatures, extreme climate events will become more common.
Rinaldo believes there will be no effective global agreement to stop climate change. According to him, it is impossible to tell a billion Indians not to use air conditioning or to stop deforestation in the Amazon when rich countries are not setting a good example. Meanwhile, the population of Africa is growing rapidly, and millions of people will migrate to cities that do not yet exist.
According to the professor, a "Marshall Plan for Water" is needed, with major investments in water resource management. For example, areas should be created where rivers can overflow their banks without causing catastrophic damage.
“ Italy calculates hydraulic security based on a 'bicentennial flood,' but now these floods occur much more frequently ,” he warns.
The predictions for Venice are alarming. Within 60 years, sea levels in the Adriatic are expected to rise by 70-80 cm, while the land beneath the city is sinking. At this rate, the “Mose” dam system will have to be closed over 260 times a year, destroying the lagoon ecosystem. According to Rinaldo, Venice will not sink like Atlantis, but will rot, due to the penetration of salt water into the foundations of buildings. (A2 Televizion)
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