The crisis the ongoing “extreme drought” is causing for the Po River and Italy’s major lakes is getting worse and shows no sign of letting up, the Po River Basin Authority (Adbpo) said Thursday after a meeting of its observatory on water resources.

“Persistent high temperatures are depleting the last remaining water reserves—namely, the large pre-Alpine lakes,” said Adbpo Secretary General Alessandro Delpiano.

“The emergency continues, and there is still no end in sight.” Adbpo said the severity level of the emergency remains “high”, with over 100 municipalities in Piedmont and Lombardy facing critical supply issues regarding drinking water.

In several towns water tankers are being used to bring in water to ensure supplies to domestic users.

The scarcity of water is also causing huge problems for agriculture.

Scientists say the climate crisis caused by human greenhouse gas emissions is making extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, supercharged storms and flooding more frequent and more intense.

Although there are many sources of the greenhouse gases that are causing global heating, the main driver is the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal, sales of which generate huge profits for the world’s energy giants.

“The consequences of climate change in northern Italy could become even more serious, for agriculture, industry, the population, and for the life system as a whole,” Delpiano said.

“Without water and food, there can be no life, therefore we must quickly adopt further measures to adapt to climate change, so as not to find ourselves in even worse situations than this in a few years”.