Italy's longest river runs dry as heatwave threatens Parmesan production

Seawater is seeping into Italy's longest river as the Po begins to run dry in the grip of an unprecedented heatwave, according to reporting from The Local Italy on Saturday. The intrusion marks a critical threshold for the farming heartland of the northern plain, where the river supplies irrigation and drinking water to dairy herds that produce milk for Parmesan cheese, one of Italy's most valuable agricultural exports.

The Po basin stretches across Piemonte, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, regions that together account for the bulk of Italy's dairy output. As temperatures soar above 40 degrees Celsius across the north, demand for irrigation water has surged while the river's flow has collapsed, forcing farmers to choose between depleting groundwater reserves or abandoning fields. Reuters reported on Friday that scientists have attributed the record-breaking heatwave to human-caused climate change, with the intensity of the weather system now described as "unequivocally" linked to emissions.