A protocol of Agreement with which the parties involved undertake to identify an action strategy to evaluate possible initiatives of common interest aimed at optimizing irrigation resources, energy efficiency and protection of the territories.
The main areas of collaboration defined by the Protocol concern, on the one hand, the design of a strategy aimed at maximizing the benefits deriving from the use of the irrigation resource through multi-purpose management. The agreement also provides for the signatories' commitment to identify the actions aimed at the optimal and efficient use of the water networks and reservoirs for hydro-drinking, irrigation and energy uses.
The ANBI, in turn, is engaged in evaluating the opportunities linked to the hydroelectric use of irrigation resources, combining them with the priority needs of agricultural enterprises and with environmental sustainability.
ANBI and Terna, therefore, will first of all set up an ad hoc working group made up of their respective representatives, in order to identify water resource management hypotheses that allow the hydroelectric use of already existing plants that need to be adapted or modernized to ensure better efficiency. In a second phase, ANBI and Terna will evaluate the implementation of possible initiatives aimed at activating the production of hydroelectric energy sufficient to allow the energy autonomy of the reclamation consortia.
Coldiretti, coherently with its institutional mission aimed at developing a more efficient use of natural resources, at countering the effects of climate change and at enhancing the multiple use of water in a perspective of energy efficiency, undertakes to collaborate because all the actions undertaken by the various institutional actors respect the principles of environmental sustainability, to preserve the Italian rural heritage and promote the conservation of biodiversity, typical of our agriculture.
Luigi Ferraris, CEO and General Manager of Terna declares – «For Terna, which places sustainability at the heart of its investment strategies, the collaboration with ANBI and Coldiretti is a great opportunity to further contribute to the energy transition process underway. The union of the water and energy sectors, in fact, will be able to create great synergies and bring benefits to electricity users and the territories, with new projects capable of generating value for the whole country".
«The agreement signed between ANBI, Coldiretti and Terna – comments Francesco Vincenzi, ANBI President – confirms the role that the reclamation consortia and, more generally, agriculture can play in the field of modernity. The agreement reached opens up new opportunities in the field of energy sustainability and optimization of the use of water resources in the interests of environmental protection and the economy of the primary sector. The future can only arise from the sharing of common objectives between subjects of different natures, but with a common sensitivity for the enhancement of the territory and its green resources".
«In the last 10 years – explains Roberto Moncalvo, President of
Coldiretti – in Italy climate change has caused damage to
over 14 billion euros and the situation does not seem to show signs of
improvement, given that we are facing increasingly extreme events
with flash floods coming after months and months of drought. AND
while 2017 was the driest year in Italy since 1800 with
rains of more than 30% lower than the average for the period, on the other
are still under the eyes of all the dramatic images of
river flooding in Emilia Romagna. Faced with that situation is
necessary to put in place every possible strategy for
rationalize and make water management more efficient from both
an irrigation point of view than from an energy point of view. We have to develop
a system that guarantees the response to the needs of our communities
and, at the same time, help reduce the impact of change
climate change on our territories and our lives".
