Mayor of town near Bologna says thousands of litres of water wasted due to double-shampooing of customers’ hair. Hairdressers face fines of up to €500 for breaking the rule.
As Italy’s drought intensifies, one mayor has introduced a rather strange ban. Carlo Gubellini, the mayor of Castenaso, near Bologna, said thousands of litres of water are squandered each day through double-shampooing. He has banned salons from shampooing customers’ hair twice. It is a move to conserve water during Italy’s most severe drought in decades.
He is believed to be the only mayor in Italy to take such a measure. It will involve checks and fines of up to €500 for salons breaking the rule. Castenaso has a population of 16,000 and 10 hairdressers and barber shops.
“If we multiply the amount of water used for each customer, we are talking about thousands of litres a day,” Gubellini told Corriere della Sera. “Castenaso is small: imagine what it means in terms of water consumption in large cities. We issued the order on Saturday, considering hairdressers are closed on Sundays and Mondays, to give them plenty of time to adapt.”
Gubellini said the rule, in place until late September, had gone down well. “The feedback has been positive,” he said. “This ordinance does not have an oppressive purpose, but rather one of empowering citizens.”
Gubellini said he hoped to be able to tweak the measure before it expired but emphasised that the situation was “really alarming”. “Emilia-Romagna has enough water reserves necessary for farmland until 29 June, then from July things could get drastically worse,” he said.
