Italy's Puglia region is facing high levels of heat and drought, causing water scarcity that is having negative consequences for the region's production of olive oil.
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00:00Extreme heat and drought.
00:03This year in Italy, the product of olive oil,
00:06one of the fundamental ingredients of the Mediterranean diet,
00:09will suffer heavy consequences from water scarcity.
00:12The region of Apulia in the south of Italy
00:15is responsible for around 50% of the national olive oil production,
00:19but the drought has been felt harshly here.
00:22Pietro Leone manages an agricultural company in the province of Foggia
00:27with around 100 hectares planted with olive trees.
00:30This year, low rainfall has seriously impacted olive production
00:34and next November's harvest promises to be poorer than the previous year.
00:39This year's production is poor, much less than last year's.
00:43We've had the stress that we've been carrying on for a couple of years
00:48and then we've had two days of bad weather during the flowering
00:53and many varieties didn't bear fruit.
00:56This year we have 50% to 80% less production.
01:02The Cappaccio Dam is the closest to the city of Foggia
01:05and supplies water to the entire province
01:07for industry, irrigation and drinking purposes.
01:10It is fed by a stream that transports rainwater into the reservoir.
01:15Today, this dam is practically empty
01:17and contains just 2.5 million cubic metres of water
01:21compared to the usual 17 million cubic metres.
01:24What little there is, comes from last winter.
01:27This year, the dam did not fill.
01:30The other three reservoirs in the province of Foggia are only 50% full.
01:36Instead of having 300 million cubic metres available in the four reservoirs,
01:41we only had half, 150 million cubic metres.
01:44So we did half a season in Rigua, in the Comprensorio in Rigua
01:49and then we had to stop to preserve nine months of drinking water.
01:55Numbers and percentages are worrying,
01:58but become shocking when translated into images.
02:02Green meadows and animals have replaced water.
02:06Here we can see in concrete what the term drought means.
02:11The low water levels of this artificial reservoir
02:14may be an advantage for grazing cows,
02:16but are very dangerous for olive trees.
02:18Although these plants need less water than other crops,
02:21temperatures above 40 degrees for 50 consecutive days
02:24put the production of olives,
02:26and therefore the precious olive oil, at great risk.