Drought-stricken Europe verging on 'natural disaster'
Published: August 10 2006 03:00 | Last updated: August 10 2006 03:00
As Europe wilts under a blistering sun, water levels in the region's rivers and reservoirs are plummeting. The night skies over Spain's forests glow orange with deadly wildfires. Cracked mud-flats border shrinking waterways. Fish lie stranded on the dry beds of lakes and rivers.
Water levels on parts of Italy's longest and most commercially vital river, the Po - which has stirred awe with the fury of its floods - have dropped to their lowest in living memory. On the Rhine, Europe's busiest waterway, low waters have forced ships to carry less cargo and make up for lost revenue with surcharges of up to 50 per cent. Spain's reservoirs were filled to just 45 per cent of capacity as of August 7, and in one case to 13 per cent, approaching the point at which only unusable sludge remains.
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Desperate to conserve water, Paris has for the first time decided not to dampen the dusty paths of its public gardens. English gardeners are banned from using hosepipes, while swimming pools remain empty in many Spanish towns.
Farmers predict a sharp fall in crops and face losses of billions of euros. In Italy, the Agricultural Confederation, a farmers' association, says production of beets, maize, rice and animal fodder will approach record lows, while the grape harvest is expected to be the lowest in two decades. Italy's farmers calculate losses so far this year at �500m ($644m, ￡337m). Ermete Realacci, head of a parliamentary environment committee, said the agricultural emergency was "verging on a natural disaster".
In Spain, where farmers face watering restrictions of up to 60 per cent, the cereal crop is set to be 17 per cent lower than the average over the past five years. Smaller harvests are expected in Germany and Poland, where the government has promised up to 500m zlotys (�128m) to support farmers who lose more than a third of their income because of drought.
The baking sun has ripened some crops early, forcing farmers to leave fruit and vegetables unharvested. In the UK - the world's second biggest frozen pea producer - some growers have had to leave 20 per cent of their harvest in the field to be taken up when dry for animal feed.
Spanish farmers are planting fewer thirsty crops such as wheat, corn and rice and, in the parched province of Valencia, are digging up small trees to sell for ornamental use. The French ecology ministry says a 20 per cent drop in the farmland devoted to corn over the past four years has saved 360m cubic metres of water - the consumption of 6m people.
French livestock farmers have been forced to dig into their winter stocks of hay, says Jean-Michel Delmas of the French agricultural union FNSEA. He warns that stress caused by the heat has thrown cattle off their usual fertility cycles and veal production could fall 10-15 per cent.
The European Commission has given permission to farmers in nine countries - including France, Italy, Germany and Spain - to graze livestock on "set-aside" land normally off limits until August 31 to prevent over-production.
The drought is not bad news for every farmer.In the UK, harvests of some soft fruit are expected tobe bigger than normal,as is winter-sown barley, while farmers whose crops escape damage cancommand higher prices.
With forests dry as tinder, thousands of hectares of trees have fallen prey to fire in Portugal and Spain. One hundred fires raged in northern Spain this week, killing at least three people.
Lower hydroelectric and nuclear output has forced some countries to crank up more costly oil-burning generators, sending energy prices soaring.
The heat has warmed the rivers on which Germany, Belgium and France rely to cool power plants. With the temperature of the Rhine last month reaching 28°C in places, Germany restricted the amount of cooling water nuclear power stations could siphon from tributaries. France raised the temperature ceiling at which power stations are allowed to drain water into rivers, but EDF, the country's largest electricity producer, was nonetheless forced to import power.
The drought has exposed some countries' mismanagement of the little water available. Italy has relatively high rainfall but some experts estimate 40 per cent of supplies are lost through leaking infrastructure.
Spain's environment ministry says at least 80 per cent of water used for agriculture is wasted. The sector consumes about 75 per cent of the country's water - double the average in the EU - but accounts for only 5 per cent of gross domestic product.
The World Wildlife Fund this month called for an end to farming subsidies for water-dependent crops such as sugar beet, blaming them for soaring water consumption.
With droughts expected to hit Europe with growing frequency and parts of the Mediterranean region at high risk of desertification, long-term fixes remain elusive. The Spanish government is building 25 desalination plants in a bid to boost supply but the plants are voracious consumers of energy and the water they produce is expensive.
Environmentalists say governments must invest in reservoirs, better water canals, alternative energy sources and more efficient irrigation systems. Until they do, they can exhortconsumers to turn offthe tap - or turn it offthemselves.
Reporting by Victoria Burnett in Madrid, Peggy Hollinger in Paris, Tony Barber in Rome, Jan Cienski in Warsaw, Gerrit Wiesmann in Frankfurt, Fiona Harvey in London, Andrew Bounds in Brussels
将成常态的欧洲干旱
如
果气候学家预测准确，那么，今年这样酷热干燥的夏季将来还会多次出现，并在未来四五十年内变成常见现象。
英国气象办公室(Met Office)的研究机构哈德莱中心(Hadley Centre)预测，未来80年内，欧洲的夏季降雨将减少50%，冬季降雨将增加30%。
地中海地区所受影响最大，其夏季将更加炎热干燥，而冬季的降雨将更可能以强烈风暴的形式出现。
欧盟委员会一位高级官员表示：“地中海国家必须决定，它们是想要农业还是旅游业。”
2000年，在欧洲用水总量中，农业用水平均占32%，电力冷却用水占31%，制造业用水占13%，家庭生活用水占24%。在比利时和德国，三分之二的水用于发电站冷却塔，但在欧洲南部国家，农业是主要的用水大户。
在即将到来的日益严重的夏季干旱期间，水务企业在满足需求方面将面临极大困难。一个看似简单的办法是把水从水量充沛的地方运至干旱地区。不过，水很重，因此长距离运输干旱地区所需要的水量既昂贵又困难。
哈德莱中心气候影响科学家皮特?法伦(Pete Falloon)表示，在水库里更好地储存水资源将成为必要之举。水务企业也需要升级大部分管道工程，因为随着干旱加剧，土地沉降和隆起的几率也上升了。
海水淡化也能解决部分问题，不过，除非使用风力涡轮而非化石燃料，否则，这一过程将耗用大量能源，从而产生二氧化碳并导致气候变化。
法伦指出，长期性的解决办法在于减少浪费，更有效地用水资源。
农民也将不得不改种其它农作物。科学家正在开发一系列更抗旱的农作物。
工业也会受到影响。气温升高，意味着需要更多的冷却水。
在英国等北方国家，电力消费模式已经开始转变，随着空调越来越普及，夏季使用的能源更多了。
发电厂也许不得不改变停工期和维护保养的时间安排――目前这些都在夏季进行。
