Water: Italia facing water stress – record water withdrawals in Europe

The link between climate change, the water crisis and extreme weather events is becoming increasingly clear. This is highlighted in the report “Too much or too little. Water in Italy in a changing climate’, presented on 5 June, World Environment Day, as part of Venice Climate Week 2026, and produced by Italy for Climate, the climate and energy research centre of the Foundation for Sustainable Development.

Italia is warming at a rate faster than the global average (+2°C over the last 50 years), which is intensifying both periods of drought and flash floods and flooding: in 2025, 1,670 hailstorms and heavy downpours were recorded in Italia, compared with 660 in 2019, and between 1980 and 2024, damage caused by extreme weather events has cost €145 billion, with a sharp acceleration recorded in recent years.

The situation remains one of water stress: Italia uses 27% of its available water; like Malta, Cyprus and Spain, it exceeds the 20% warning threshold. And it holds the record for water abstraction in Europe: 36 billion cubic metres in 2023, more than Spain (33), France (26) and Germany (24), with particularly high levels in agriculture, domestic use and industry, whilst glaciers are disappearing. Meanwhile, Italia currently has a per capita water supply of around half the European average, down 20% on a century ago.

‘The ongoing climate crisis is giving rise, with regional and seasonal variations, to significant risks of both drought and flooding. To increase resilience and reduce vulnerability to these hazards, we need, on the one hand, a paradigm shift in water resource management, moving from linear to circular water use, with a focus on water conservation across all sectors, to the renewal of networks to put an end to massive wastage, to the reuse of treated water for irrigation with the recovery of phosphorus and nitrogen from sewage sludge, and to the collection and reuse of rainwater. On the other hand, structural adaptation measures are needed: halting urban sprawl and the sealing of the land, increasing areas for the expansion and restoration of river floodplains and wetlands, and for rainwater storage in urban and peri-urban areas. ‘All this requires awareness, the use of risk analysis and climate adaptation planning tools that are now available, and secure, stable and long-term resources, even after the funds from the NRRP have run out,’ explains Edo Ronchi, president of the Foundation for Sustainable Development.

‘In Italia, for years now we have been witnessing the worrying changes caused by global warming to our planet’s oceans. An increasingly warmer Mediterranean poses direct risks to biodiversity, as evidenced by the exponential rise in alien species, but also to coastlines and coastal cities, which are threatened by rising sea levels. On land, we are witnessing the paradox of too much or too little water. Increasingly intense rainfall, which is now the norm rather than the exception, is putting the lives of millions of people at risk, especially in northern Italia. On the other hand, increasingly high temperatures and prolonged periods without rain during the summer months threaten the southern regions in particular, with residents of some regional capitals now getting used to a new normal: that of water rationing, which is no longer an exception during the summer season,’ concludes Andrea Barbabella, Scientific Director of Italy for Climate.