Rome turns off its historic ‘big nose’ drinking fountains as drought grips Italy.
“We know perfectly well the inconvenience that this will cause, but it is due to the exceptional drought,” Paolo Saccani, the head of the utility company that manages the fountains, wrote in a letter to Virginia Raggi, Rome’s mayor.
The level of the lake has been falling for weeks as the city sucks vast quantities of fresh water from it.
But the decision to let the fountains run dry was criticised by many locals, as well as consumer groups.
“There will be negative consequences for everyone,” said Carlo Rienzi, the president of Codacons, a consumers’ rights organisation.
“Turning off the fountains will force tourists and citizens to buy bottles of water in bars and shops and prices will no doubt be hiked up.
Each spout is punctured by a tiny hole – block the end of the spout with your hand, and a thin stream of water arches out of the hole, meaning you don’t have to bend down so low to drink.
Most of the cast-iron fountains are stamped with the letters SPQR – Senatus Populus Que Romanus, or the Senate and the People of Rome, the symbol of the ancient city.
Weeks of unseasonably high temperatures and a lack of rain have left vast areas of Italy suffering from drought.
Farmers say the dry spell has cost them more than one billion euros in lost production so far this year.