Two hundred and twenty liters a day, which rise to 245 considering the figure for the capital cities, against the 165 liters of the European average. This is the amount of water that every single Italian consumes, according to the data emerging from the study “Water in our hands”, created by Finish, the brand of products for the dishwasher, in collaboration with FAI – Fondo Ambiente Italiano and National Geographic. Finish's focus was rightly centered on the waste of water for washing dishes: each hand wash requires about 122 litres, and in any case 56% of Italians pre-wash the dishes even before putting them in the dishwasher, thus reaching waste anyway up to 38 liters of water each time.
The research also analyzes the Italian scenario, which certainly does not have a scarce availability of water: thanks to the mountain system and moderate rainfall, we have a marked abundance of water: 302 billion cubic meters a year of rain alone, i.e. about 2.800 cubic meters/inhabitant, higher endowment than Great Britain or Germany. But precisely because of their easy accessibility and low costs (whatever anyone says…), we use them in abundance: Italy is in first place in the EU for withdrawals of water for potable use with 428 liters per inhabitant per day, a figure that must necessarily be very high because a lot of it is lost along the way, 47,9%, almost one liter for every 2 entered into the system.
Not to mention that a lot of water is not even collected, even though it is hypothetically available: in Italy we only use 11% of rainwater, we do not recover gray water in our homes, we use little or no non-potable water from the first aquifer, we only reuse 1% of all the water we purify. And then there is the issue of climate change and drought: in 2017, eleven Italian regions requested a state of natural disaster for damage to agriculture and in several Italian cities the effects were much more extensive and widespread, including for life everyday. In 2019 the alarm continued due to the absence of rain in the first three winter months, reaching an even worse situation for Northern Italy than that of 2017, with rainfall halved.
“The FAI – commented Daniele Meregalli, FAI Environment Manager – has set itself an ambitious goal: reduce water consumption by 20% in 10 years within its assets. “National Geographic tells stories that matter through inspiring imagery, fact-based journalism and unrivaled entertainment,” said Deborah Armstrong, Senior Vice President, Advertising Sales, Brand Partnerships and General Manager National Geographic. The content developed for this campaign will spread awareness of the problem of water scarcity and show how making small changes to our daily habits can make a difference”.
The "Water in our hands" project also includes an intense awareness campaign, as Enrico Marchelli, Regional Director Italy, Greece and Israel at RB Hygiene Home recalled: "We have launched a project capable of involving everyone, starting from our company population, passing through our partners and external stakeholders, up to our consumers”.
