Rome to reduce night-time water pressure to ease drought.
ROME — Rome’s water utility, Acea, is planning to reduce water pressure in factories and buildings across the capital in its latest effort to combat the effects of a nationwide drought that has parched reservoirs and wreaked havoc on Italian agriculture.
Acea officials said the night-time reductions would begin in September, when Romans return en masse from vacation.
Acea said Monday that 1,300 leaks had been repaired.
Italian farm lobby Coldiretti estimates $2 billion in losses nationwide due to the drought.
As southern Europe emerges from months of searing heat, France is growing concerned about a looming natural gas shortage this winter, Bloomberg News reported.
Natural gas that should be going into storage is being used to offset reduced hydropower output and to cool people down, meaning the nation may not have enough fuel to warm everyone up come winter, officials said.
Storage levels are near a five-year low, while an infrastructure bottleneck that propelled the country’s gas prices to the highest in the world last winter hasn’t been resolved.
To make matters worse, the nuclear fleet, France’s main source of electricity for heating, is mired in uncertainty.
Associated Press