The Vatican fountains are unusually quiet at present. That’s because Pope Francis has had them turned off to show solidarity and conserve water during the drought affecting much of Italy.
Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si denounces wasteful practices and highlights the importance of clean drinking water.
The prolonged drought has hit two-thirds of farmland and has so far cost Italian agriculture about two billion euros. Read more
Additional readingNews category: News Shorts, World.