PALERMO -- Funeral notices for the Pergusa Lake have been posted around Enna announcing the death of Sicily’s only natural lake following the area’s ongoing drought. 

  Marco Greco, the city councillor for Enna and member of the Democratic Party pasted the notices and held the funeral on Sunday with the help of young democrats. 

  “We have celebrated the death of what was the only natural lake in Sicily for millennia: one of the largest environmental disasters ever seen,” Greco explained. 

  “Over a year ago we asked the competent institutions to take action through motions to the city council, interpellations to the regional and national government, only after strong political pressure was a technical table set up by councillor Elena Pagana (Fratelli d’Italia). What did the Schifani government do to save the lake? What happened to the technical table?” 

  Renzo Bufalino, the provincial coordinator of the Democratic Party and Mayor of Montedoro, in the Caltanissetta region, also expressed his concerns about the drought. “It is a very tragic situation which mainly falls on us mayors, but we must have acted earlier, much earlier.” 

  “The little water that comes is from the lakebed and is therefore full of residue. They had to install a water purifier, but this only happened on June 20, and we still don’t know anything about potability.” 

  “Soon, as summer approaches, Montedoro’s population will rise from 1020 people to 3000, what are we going to do?” 

  After July 20, Bufalino explained that the “Fanaco Dam can no longer be a water source, there will be no more water. And for us, it is a very dramatic situation because there only source we have is that dam, there are, however, the towns in the Agrigento and Trapani areas which have other solutions, if they moved on to other solutions, we could make it through, but we are already very late, due to the fault of the politicians and technicians: we already knew that Fanaco was suffering and we should have provided for it much earlier.” 

  Measures have already been taken in other areas of the region however to counter the effects of the drought, with water tankers provided to homes and businesses in the case of emergencies. 

  In Messina, water rationing is implemented throughout the year, however regulations have been tightened further. At the University of Messina water supply is limited to only three hours per day. 

  “In relation to the other cities, thanks to the interventions launched in recent years, we have succeeded in managing the situation, while still guaranteeing water supply everywhere, which should not be taken for granted. Consider that from our primary source, Fiumefreddo, less than 100 litres per second arrive due to the drought,” explained Salvo Puccio, the general director of Messina. 

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