Surprise, Italy is among the rainiest countries in Europe. Milan is the European metropolitan area where an average of 1162 mm/year of rain falls. Turin, Florence and Rome follow with figures between 900mm and 830mm, much more than Paris which is at 647mm, London at 690mm, Berlin with 669mm. In short Italy it is a lucky country, because there is water even if not equally distributed between North and South and between the various seasons. The problem lies in the fact that for about fifty years we have completely abandoned both the programming of supplies and distribution plus we practically didn't maintenance of the existing systems with the consequence that we have some Prevention colossal in the journey from collection to use e waste noticeable among users who have not followed the pace of modern water-saving technologies.
It is necessary to eliminate losses and waste and to plan organic interventions
Now we are full drought emergency. TV and newspapers speak of a catastrophe and call for prompt government intervention to remedy the situation. It is true that in the last twenty years there have been 8 phases of drought, but there are no remedies to be activated in a very short time: it is necessary to recover the ability to plan interventions, adopt an organic plan to diversify the sources, expand the basins accumulation, eliminate losses and waste. To do all this requires at least a ten-year commitment from the public and the involvement of private individuals.
A study sponsored by the engineering company progr and presented yesterday in the Senate together with Italiadecide represented by President Finocchiaro, offers a useful contribution to the government which is drawing up a coordinated plan between the various ministries and the widespread competent authorities in the area in a special control room, to recover years of inattention (perhaps even distraction following purely ideologies on public water) and make the investments that are needed also using the funds already available from the Pnrr and other appropriations already in the budget.
The project presented by Erasmo D'Angelis and Mauro Grassi comes to the conclusion that the next ten years about 55 billion of Euros of investments of which 35 public. Important figures but for a state that has allowed itself to spend over 110 billion on home bonuses, they shouldn't be a problem. Also because water is certainly an essential good both for production (about 50% is consumed in agriculture) and for individual well-being.
The aqueducts lose between 30 and 40% of the water withdrawn
To line up the political "oversights" of the last decades, the arms fall. The aqueducts leak between the 30 and 40% of the water withdrawn. And then Italian citizens are the ones who consume the most water in Europe and pay much less for it. The invaded (we have 531 big dams and 26.000 small ones) are filled for much less than their capacity both for lack of maintenance of the seabed and for an incredible series of bureaucratic blocks. We do not use waste water (and for this we pay fines of over 180 euros a day in Brussels) and, moreover, in Sicily many towns do not have a sewage system (what does the Region do?). We do not have desalination plants which in Spain satisfy 3% of the demand and in Italy 0,1%.
As he pointed out in conclusion grain head, president of Assoambiente, the Italians have a long experience in water treatment. Since Roman times, impressive aqueducts have been built that can still be admired today, then reclamations were made. What we face are not problems beyond our reach. From a financial point of view, there shouldn't be any difficulties, but we have to overcome opposition from local authorities who generally don't want dams, desalination plants, or even efficient management of water companies.
It is necessary to change the rules on procurement and recover decision-making capacity
The most important problem is therefore to recover a decision ability. Change procurement rules and those that expose excessive risks i officials called to make decisions. Finally, we must not forget that water is needed also to produce energy. Drought and poorly maintained reservoirs caused a 35% reduction in hydroelectric power generation last year. And then there is talk of decarbonisation!
Ultimately, Italy has neglected the water issue because it was convinced that water was very abundant in our country (and it was), but now we need to look to the future with realism. We will have plenty of water only if we know how to make the necessary investments and if we have the ability to efficiently manage our consumption.
