By Laia Serrano i Sorroca | Staff Writer
Last Tuesday the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy was hit by devastating floods, which caused the death of 14 people and the displacement of 10.000 more. Such floods were caused by heavy storms as in only 36 hours, the volume of rainfall falling was equivalent to that of 6 months. On top of this, the heavy rains came after a period of drought, which affected the soil’s capacity of absorbing water. Thus, once rain started falling, the land was unable to absorb it and floods were formed faster than usual.
During the episodes, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was attending the G7 summit in Hiroshima and decided to return earlier to visit the area. She was not alone in her visit, as the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen also landed in Bologna and held a press conference together with the Italian leader.
In order to face the crisis, the Commission has activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, aimed at providing rapid responses to disasters. The Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, stated in a speech on May 24th that “over the past decade, request to the Mechanism for assistance in the face of emergencies have risen by an average of 350 percent”, thus evidencing Europe’s climate vulnerability.
Italy has not been the only country suffering from extreme climate events during the last months. In fact, Spain had been suffering from severe drought and extreme temperatures during the month of April, which forced the authorities impose water restrictions to the population. Córdoba, in Southern Spain, reached 38,8 ºC in April. Certainly, the situation was so critical that governments were trying to devise a plan to guarantee water supplies for essential facilities during summer.
While these episodes become more and more common, it has yet to be seen what the next steps of European and national authorities are. As of now, climate activists ask for more radical measures to face the future that lies ahead, and to try to mitigate the devastating effects of climate change.