Amid nationwide drought, Rome seeks ways to avoid rationing.
Associated Press ROME (AP) – Rome and its water company are working hard to avoid rationing during a nationwide drought, Italy’s environment minister said Thursday.
But Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti told reporters that while Rome’s situation "worries me most" both the city and the Acea water utility are "working out a solution that can avoid having hundreds of thousands of Roman citizens go without water."
He called that scenario "unacceptable."
Galletti also decried as "intolerable" chronic leaks that lose some 40 percent of the water supply before it reaches users.
Last week, the governor of Lazio, the region including Rome, ordered a halt to drawing water from the drought-suffering Lake Bracciano, which supplies 8 percent of Rome’s water.
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Drastically decreasing water levels are posing danger to the aquatic life of the lake, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the city.
In Rome famed, monumental fountains beloved by tourists risk being turned off.
Making matters worse, water supply pipelines in the Rome area – famed in ancient Roman times for its aqueducts, segments of which still stand – are notoriously leaky.