The latest tender for water management took place a few days ago. The Hera Group was awarded the service concession in the province of Rimini: 24 Municipalities with 160 users and over 3 km of pipelines will be headed by the company for the next 18 years. Only one municipality in the area remained outside, without weakening the operational asset. In a few days, the signing of the contract will take place 1,7 billion euros between the company chaired by Tomaso Tommasi of Vignano and Atersir, the Territorial Agency for water and waste. Emilia Romagna is one of the first tenders announced, even if the bill Competition as soon as it was launched by the government, it returned to services under concession. The tenders are a challenge, said Tommasi di Vignano, and "this milestone demonstrates once again how for us, in addition to the quality and continuity of services, it is important to invest and generate positive effects for local communities".
The theme of water management remains highly topical. In mission 2 of the Pnrr ("Green revolution and ecological transition") we talk about "guaranteeing the security of supply and sustainable and efficient management of water resources along the entire cycle". 250 million euros will be invested in the province of Rimini, but new protests against "privatization" have spread from Emilia Romagna itself to Sicily. Fear of those who govern essential services without considering that we are a country a two speeds.
The starting point of committees and associations is the betrayal of the referendum on public water 10 years ago. A litany that became fake news when in Italy there was serious talk of reforms. It pushes on fear to deal with profit-oriented managers. Do companies just make money? Are their investments really adequate for the overall management of water networks?
"Over the past ten years, the industrial managements of the country, also on the stimulus of the Arera regulation, have improved their ability to plan and make investments, adopted a planning of interventions, identified priorities, avoided wasting resources chasing emergencies and acquired skills always more- he replies Donato Berardi director of the think tank on local public services of REF Searches – Just to give you an idea, where a Municipality invests 5 in maintenance, the industrial company invests 50. Investments where there are industrial companies have tripled in the last ten years. They went from 15 euros per inhabitant per year in 2011 to the 70 euros per inhabitant per year planned for the four-year period 2020-2023. We are moving towards European values. That's probably not enough yet, because we need to make up for the previous thirty years of underinvestment. And in some areas of the country the Galli law of the mid-90s has remained a dead letter“. A law for the general reform of the water system, at a time when discussions of liberalization and efficiency in public services were just beginning.
Berardi and the Ref have long focused on the salient aspects of the main public service. The outcome of the 2011 vote – they wrote – was not to make water a common good, but rather a community good. But among the political forces there are still those who talk about public water. The issue is part of the Draghi Agenda and the Italian recovery plan. Why, in your opinion, does it no longer make sense to talk about public water?
“That water is public in a country where private individuals do not exist it is a given. Those that are referred to as private are listed companies, but still under public control. Unless by public water we mean the water managed by the Municipalities, the water of politics. That's not everyone's water, rather it's no one's water. The Draghi Agenda takes note of the fact that the delays in the South (and beyond) are due precisely to thecarelessness of public administrations, where the regions are unable to plan interventions (the situation on purification in Sicily is dramatic, for example) and the lack of industrial operators. Or assuming that the purifiers are made who makes them work then? The Draghi Agenda intends 1) to help the regions measure the needs of the territories and to plan, 2) to encourage the birth of industrial operators, public or private, it doesn't matter, as long as they exist”.
We also see disservices, however.
“It is precisely where there is a lack of industrial management that the greatest disservices are found, a lack of construction of the sewage networks and purifiers, the lack of maintenance and the deterioration of the existing ones. A legacy that has dragged on for decades of neglect, bad management, lack of interest in the environment, often supported by a political management that has made a demagogic use of the tariff: a brake on the realization of the investments necessary to modernize and improve the service”. A sampling of obstacles, in short, barely affected by the institution of the Arera, as a choice of good Italian reformism.
Berardi, you argue that public companies are now consolidated in the area. But is this also the case in the southern regions?
“In the South, with some exceptions such as Apulian Aqueduct and some industrial wholesalers (I like to name a few because the few experiences must be remembered, also so that it is understood that if you want you can) there is a lack of industrial operators. The water service in many areas of Sicily, Campania and Calabria is still the direct responsibility of the Municipalities: but how can a Municipality manage an industrial plant? We need industrial operators, public, private or mixed companies, but companies".
There is also space for public-private partnerships which “can be a response, even a transitory one, for the launch of industrial management. But if we don't bring these skills to the South, the funds from the PNRR cannot be spent and the distances in the country will continue to increase". At this point, it is useless to look to the past: it is more useful to scrutinize the future and expect an efficient and sustainable service.
