The Ministry of Infrastructure has given free life to a plan from 313 million euro to address the water crisis in the South (Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Puglia and Sicily). What will this money be used for? Simple: it was published in Official Gazette a tender for new projects aimed at reducing waste, with the provision that within 45 days the Area Authorities of the five Regions present proposals to improve the quality and management of the service. The latter is the weak link in a substantially inefficient distribution system. The case of the is emblematic Sicily, where the networks lose more than 50% of the water intended for families. The aim of the provision is to combat the waste that has dug a furrow between North and South, aggravated by forms of service management inconsistent with needs. In addition to the provisions of the Resilience Plan, residual resources are now being used. In fact, the tender derives from the React Eu program available to the Minister for the South and Territorial Cohesion, but managed by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Mobility: these are European Pon Infrastructure and Networks funds for the years 2014-2021.
The projects may include the use of digital technologies for monitoring networks and improving resilience, according to the general principles of the green transition. For these works, several times the minister Roberto Cingolani referred to the National Strategy for Sustainable Development et al Climate change adaptation plan. Seen from the South, the new plan is certainly an opportunity to implement indispensable work that has also exposed Italy to admonitions from the EU.
“The announcement – he said Mara Carfagna, minister for the South and territorial cohesion - is a first response to a problem that affects the quality of life and the development potential of the South. Thanks to the plan that we have prepared precisely in the context of React Eu, there is the possibility to start improving the management of water resources at the service of southern citizens". A certain concern for the times with which the local authorities will be able to take advantage of the opportunity and present workable projects. The road map evidently it also affects hundreds of companies that assist the management companies and that with the new projects will grow in employment and turnover. A value chain that unfortunately is not seen in many services in the South.
The gap with the North has in fact produced the85% of infringement procedures issued by the European Union against Italy in the entire water sector. The problems range from the lack of purifiers to the inefficiency of the sewage systems, to the maintenance of the plants. "The reduction of water losses in the networks is one of the main challenges for the South of the country - commented the Minister of Infrastructure, Enrico Giovannini – It is necessary to strengthen the industrialization process of the sector with the establishment of integrated public or private operators, with the aim of achieving economies of scale and ensuring the efficient management of a fragmented and complex sector”. On the horizon re-emerges the great topic of management and the industrial capacity of those who receive the service. A topic now poised between economic reforms, public service concessions and ecological transition.
