FEAR IN ITALY:AS DROUGHT PERSIST.

The main artery that cuts through Italy's heartland, where 30% of its food is produced, is the 650-kilometer-long (400-mile-long) River Po, which winds its way from the Alps to the Adriatic Sea on Italy's northeast coast. But a dry winter and spring mean this year it's in trouble.

But in 2022, things are very different. An unusually dry winter meant snow melt was scarce and spring rains only sporadic, which has led to the worst drought in the northern regions of Italy in more than 70 years, a regional agency for the River Po confirmed.

And that is a big problem for the millions of people who rely on the Po for their livelihoods. Salination from the Adriatic Sea has started turning its fresh water into unusable poison for crops. Recent samples show salt water more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) inland, and as the river drops lower, the sea will continue to fill the void.

Massimiliano Fazzini, head of the Climate Risk Department of the Italian Society of Environmental Geology, says that in the current hydrological year, which started December 1, the Po River basin has a water deficit of around 45% to 70% in some areas.

"I'm usually never a pessimistic or alarmist, but this time we must be alarmist," he told CNN, citing the difference in the average snowfall from 7.5 meters (24.6 feet) in normal years to 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) this year coupled with rising temperatures that have meant the reservoirs that might be accessible in a drought year are not at capacity. "The situation is critical and can only get worse," he said.