- Sicily, Italy, is in a state of emergency due to the country’s worst drought in 20 years.
- Water rations are so strict that hotel and hostel owners turn away tourists.
- With the region’s economy based on tourism, the drought threatens financial stability.
The extreme drought in Sicily is the worst the Italian island has seen in 20 years, and it is so severe that it is threatening the region’s economy.
Drought in Sicily has turned the local climate into one similar to Ethiopia’s, Britain’s Sky News reported, prompting a state of emergency, drying up lakes and prompting authorities to implement strict water rations.
The rations are so strict — with some residents being asked to cut their water usage by up to 45 percent — that they are prompting some hotel and hostel owners to turn away guests because they cannot guarantee that showers will work or toilets will work, CNN reported.
“People are rightly asking us for guarantees before coming, but we don’t know what to say,” Giovanni Lopez, owner of the Le Cinque Novelle bed and breakfast in central Agrigento, told CNN. “The situation is rapidly impacting the entire tourist accommodation sector, which could have serious economic consequences, given that tourism is a sector that almost everyone in this part of Sicily relies on.”
The economic impact is impossible to ignore: between empty reservoirs and livestock dead from the drought, CNN reports that the region has lost more than a billion euros, or nearly $1.1 billion.
Representatives from the Italian Tourism Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. However, CNN reported that Italian Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè suggested in April that Sicily should try to expand its tourism beyond the summer to address the region’s worsening water crisis.
In addition to the drought, many regions of Italy, including Sicily, are also facing demographic destabilization, prompting authorities to offer incentives for relocation to rural areas in the hope that the new residents will help stabilize population levels.
