Iran Press/ Europe: New images have highlighted the extent of a record drought in northern Italy. According to the Po River District Basin Authority, the river is seven meters lower than usual, with barely any rainfall for around four months.
The Po River, Italy's longest, stretches from the Alps in the northwest to the Adriatic Sea in the east. It's not only the lack of rainfall that is a problem. ESA says high temperatures and a lack of snow in the mountains that feed the river are also worsening the situation.
The worst drought in 70 years has meant salt water from the Adriatic sea flows back into the sluggish Po, damaging crops hit by an early summer heatwave.
The Po Valley is a key agricultural area in Italy, producing around 40% of the country's food, including wheat, rice, and tomatoes.
In the final downstream part of the delta, near Ferrara, which supplies drinking water to more than 250,000 people, and also in the area of Rimini, there is a real risk of not having water, which means no drinking water for human usage.
Seawater flows into the Po make irrigation almost impossible in parts of Italy's agricultural heartland, as it risks burning the already parched crops.
Some four kilometers from where the Po meets the sea in the small village of Scardovari in northeast Italy waves crash through the anti-salt barriers and push downstream.
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