ROME, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Some popular tourist cities in the southern Italian island region of Sicily are telling tourists to go elsewhere due to extreme water shortages, according to local government and media reports.
"This is a problem that's been building up for two decades," Francesco Picarella, director of the Hoteliers Association of Agrigento in Sicily, told Xinhua. "But now the problem has become acute, and we are forced to take some drastic steps that would have been unimaginable a few years ago."
Picarella said that while some hotels and bed-and-breakfast establishments are being forced to turn tourists away, those who are accepting visitors are placing filters on sinks, toilets, and shower heads to limit water flow, and some towns may be forced to ration water in other ways.
Reports said that officials are trying to temporarily reduce water usage to as little as half of normal levels.
The water shortages come as Italy prepares itself for a record year for tourist arrivals, surpassing levels set in 2018 and 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.
Most of Italy, including Sicily, are in the grips of the early stages of what could be an extended drought and heatwave, the third consecutive year with such conditions, which means that water tables are starting the summer already below capacity.
