The last few years have been among the warmest since there have been time series measuring global temperature. Prolonged droughts and exceptional rainfall have had significant consequences on the normal supply of water reserves and caused crises throughout our country. And it is with a similar, if not probably worse, scenario that Italian utilities will have to deal with in the near future.
To meet this challenge, a National Water Strategy is needed that allows long-term and far-reaching planning to coordinate the efforts of all stakeholders along the water management chain, and which involves the Legislator, the Regulatory Authority 'Energy (AEEGSI), local administrations and consumers.
The Observatory for a Sustainable Water Industry (OSWI), developed by AGICI, in partnership with Garanzia Casa for 2018, and launched in recent days in Milan during a seminar that saw the participation of Luca Mercalli (President of the Italian Meteorological Society), Giovanni Valotti (President of A2A and Utilitalia), Andrea Gilardoni and Marco Carta (respectively President and Chief Executive Officer of AGICI), Elena Gallo, Head of the Tariff Regulation Unit for the Provision of Water Services - AEEGSI), Lionello Guelfi ( CEO of Assistance Casa) and representatives of some of the most important Italian water companies, intends to contribute to the debate through a research activity that in the next year will be developed on three main axes:
• positioning of Italian utilities with respect to the challenges posed by climate change through the study of the investments and strategic priorities of a sample made up of the 50 most relevant companies in the sector;
• impact on the Italian industrial and services supply chain of the investments made and planned in the light of the interventions of the Energy Authority;
• consumer needs in terms of service quality, costs, environmental impact and also public control or otherwise of companies in the sector.
The results of these research activities will lead to the drafting of the first Annual Report on the Integrated Water Service and a working paper on consumer needs which will be presented in the 2018st OSWI Workshop in April/May XNUMX.
“Climate change is a new and gigantic challenge for Italian utilities” – comments Andrea Gilardoni, President of AGICI – “The OSWI Observatory was created for this very reason: to support the strategic planning of utilities with data, information, guidelines and proposals Italian water utilities”. “Italy as a land of abundant water resources now seems to be a thing of the past” – adds Marco Carta, Chief Executive Officer for Development of AGICI. “Water, now and in the future more than ever, is a precious and necessary asset for long-term planning to optimize its use and preserve its value for future generations with all the players in the water supply chain”.
