Extreme Drought in Italy's Po River Reveals Unexploded World War II Bomb

Summer in Europe brought record-breaking heatwaves and scorched fields - contributing greatly to water decline in lakes and rivers.

One of the continent's worst drought-stricken waters is Po, the longest river in Italy. The river ran so low it revealed a previously submerged, unexploded World War II Bomb, BBC reported. According to military experts, the 450kg (1,000 pound) bomb was discovered by fishermen on July 25 on the banks of the river, near the northern village of Borgo Virgilio.

Army official Colonel Marco Nasi said that River Po revealed the bomb due to decrease in water levels caused by drought which dried up large sections of the 650km (400 mile) river.

The Italian military officials defused and carried out a controlled explosion on Sunday, which was "no easy task" to contain the unexploded device. Some 3,000 nearby residents were evacuated for the disposal operation, the area's airspace was shut down, and navigation along the waterway as well as traffic on the railway were halted.

"At first, some of the inhabitants said they would not move, but in the last few days we think we have persuaded everyone," local mayor Francesco Apori said.

Italy's Worst Drought

According to CNBC, Italy declared a state of emergency on Monday in five regions due to extreme drought caused by unusual lack of rain and rising temperatures.

"For the Po basin, this is the most serious water crisis of the last 70 years, according to analysis by the Po River District Basin Authority," Prime Minister Mario Draghi told the Italian Government. Italy is sending $37.5 million in relief funds to regions that have been especially hard hit - Emilia-Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto.

The prime minister says there is no doubt that "climate change is having an effect" in Italy's water shortages due to hot weather and low rainfall levels. "The crisis comes from three years of drought and warmer temperatures," Draghi said.

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Water Crisis in Po

Italy's Po River runs east across the northern part of the country from the Pian del Re of Monte Viso to the Adriatic Sea near Venice, where 17 million people, or one-third of the total population reside in its basin.

The water crisis in Po has two categories of causes, as per Draghi, one is the rainfall deficit of the last three years, and the general rise in temperatures caused by climate change. He also said that Italy is losing water from the Po River because of structural causes which mean "poor maintenance of the basins, and poor network maintenance."

Annual satellite images of the Po this year show expanding patches of dried-up riverbed as a result of extreme drought, and slowing current. Farmers in the Po Valley say salty seawater is now seeping into the river and destroying crops, wiping out 30% of the total harvest, according to a statement Sunday from Coldiretti, an agricultural organization in the European Union.

This came at an "especially painful time" for the industry as seed planting already decreased by 10,000 hectares due to a "record increase in production costs" caused by the war in Ukraine, Coldiretti added.