Francesca Portincasa, general manager of the Apulian Aqueduct, she is the first woman in 100 years to direct it. It does not come from "outside", it is an internal resource, as they say in the jargon. And the fact that she was promoted for her competence and her professionalism was demonstrated by the dozens of selfie-greetings that the workers sent her on the day of her appointment. Never happened before, to any executive. What effect does it have on her? “A double effect. I feel great pride for having managed to go down this path, but I also feel a great responsibility because not only will I have to continue to give my best and my best, but I will have to do so with the awareness of representing a genre that in Acquedotto, until recently ago, he was underrepresented, especially in technical and top management roles. I mean I now represent the female gender, not just myself. Leading men are spared this.”
Portincasa spent 32 years in the company, she was the witness of the dark years, in which it seemed that the Aqp had to be sold to the best buyer because the State needed to raise cash; and those of rebirth, when the need for water to be a public good, after the referendum of June 2011, was no longer questioned. She tells Emma Strada, the first woman with an engineering degree in Italy and engaged in the construction of the Aqueduct, with whom she dialogues in the company's Christmas greetings campaign, that the glass roof has been broken and that she is proof.
How much did it cost you?
“It cost me, yes. Like all women who want to fulfill themselves in their work, I had to work three times as much. Double at work to demonstrate that I was capable despite, pass me the term, the handicap of being a woman. And obviously in the family because, although she has had enormous support from a great companion who has supported me all these years, the care of everyone, of the children, of the elderly, are still on the shoulders of women. She's always balancing herself to try to be a good worker, a great wife, a great mother, a great daughter, a great person. It costs effort. There are dark moments, but the important thing is knowing how to recover, give yourself courage and move forward. Perhaps this is why I was so surprised and moved by the videos of colleagues who shared my journey and wished me a happy birthday. I didn't expect it, all the rest of the effort must have been recognized as well ”.
The Aqp today is entirely public and belongs to the Puglia Region. Has 2 thousand employees and with investments of 172,8 million euros achieved, it was also confirmed in 2020 as an important catalyst for the Apulian economy. It manages the integrated water service in Puglia and in 12 municipalities in Campania for a total of over 4 million inhabitants. Over thirty-two thousand are the kilometers of the network, of which five thousand for supply alone. Aqp guarantees the integrated water cycle in all its phases: collection, purification and distribution of drinking water, sewerage service and waste water purification up to their eventual reuse. A huge hydraulic work, born as an intuition of a Salernitan (the civil engineering engineer Camillo Rosalba) immediately after the unification of Italy, to "give the Apulians something to drink", but which for many years, according to a truncated joke attributed to Gaetano Salvemini, it has been said that it was served "to feed" others. All true if we understand the metaphor addressed to the clientele that such a work has financed during its existence. But philologically false because Salvemini, provincial councilor of Bari at the time of the works, to criticize the slowness of the work, said exactly that "the Apulian aqueduct is giving the Genoese more to eat than the Apulians to drink" since it was a Genoese who had won the state order. They say it was Mario Missiroli, historic director of Corriere della Sera, to be the first to use the effective metaphor that is also used today.
Director, do you remember the first day you joined Aqp?
“I remember it very well. Being a biologist I was immediately assigned to a laboratory of course. The specific plant was located in the countryside, between Laterza and Castellaneta, south of Bari. So my husband and I got into the car the day before the assignment to find out where it was. After the exploration, the next day I arrived excited, anxious, and was greeted by a colleague with this sentence: well doctor, you have won a public competition, you will know what you have to do, the laboratory is downstairs. And she disappeared. It may seem brutal, but I considered it a great teaching that I put into practice in reverse later welcoming the new recruits with a smile and the explanation of what was expected of them. Giving them confidence, making them feel desired, integrated is essential. And on the other hand, if you welcome it like this, in the event that there are no performing results, you are more easily entitled to reproaches”.
This is not his first job at the top…
"Real. It can be said that throughout my career I have been the first woman to occupy certain positions. I was the first director of laboratories, the first manager of the territorial units of Bari and the province, the first director of networks and plants, the first industrial coordinator. And the most important thing has always been the human experience, the good fortune to work with many people who are all different from each other and to be able to take care of all aspects of the Integrated Water Service and the marvelous profession of the "aqueduct technician". Starting with the relationship with customers. In the company we always remember 2007 when my installation at the Bari unit coincided with a major water crisis. The women of old Bari, who suffered the most from the lack of water, came out to the door of the headquarters to protest. I went with my team and the plumbers to check house by house where the water arrived and at what time, where it didn't arrive at all. We didn't have the technological means of today, I did it shouting in dialect under the doorways: sir, do you have water? It was the only way to make a map and also to understand if the protests were justified. And it was also a way to demonstrate that the Aqueduct existed and that it took care of the citizens' problems”.
Have you thought about how you want to use your role?
"Yes. As far as the company is concerned, I would very much like there to be a better reconciliation of work times and life times in the future. Because work is a part of our life. And for this reason we are thinking, in agreement with the presidency and the Board, in synergy with the Personnel Department, of implementing smart working. As for the citizens, in the future there can only be even more intense work to offer the best service. Progress has been made. When I think of Puglia's 17 blue flags, I can only be proud of the work done by the Aqp purification plants in all these years. Because I'm pleased to remember that we are a contracting station, an engineering company, but above all we are the custodians of the most precious asset, public water”.
When we talk about Aqp we often remember that it loses a lot of water along the way (even 50% in some points) due to the bad conditions of its pipelines. What is being done to avoid this?
“Leaks from pipelines: it's our point of weakness and where we can improve, it's the big issue. But we are catching up. Meanwhile with the verification in the field. Last year we explored 3.900 km of the network, but we have 21, so we still have work to do. With management operations alone we are recovering water by improving the service. Respect for water is a concept that will be enhanced more and more in the future by avoiding waste. And then we need to use unconventional resources: with projects to recover water outside the Region, for example from Abruzzo, Albania; by watermakers; and to use the purified one for agriculture. However, all of this is integrated, not an alternative to the recovery of the networks. 2 billion euros will be invested in this specific issue, a good figure that demonstrates the commitment given that the entire amount of the area plan is worth 7 billion up to 2045”.
And finally the question of the questions: how is Aqp preparing to spend the funds of the PNRR and in which direction will they be used?
"We are ready. Firstly, in collaboration with the Apulian water authority and the Region, we are working on the plan that allocates 313 million to the Mezzogiorno for the digitization and rehabilitation of the networks. Of this figure we intend to option 100. The Water Authority will have to manage the money, while Aqp will take care of developing the projects. We are also working on the purification of sludge and on the issue of waste, to reduce the former and send it cleaned to agriculture; and transform seconds into a resource”.
What would you say to the many women (but still few) who have reached the top of their work right now?
"Build barriers of affection, inside and outside of work: only in this way will the knives that are sharpened to hit you in the back not hurt you, at most they will be pin pricks".
