The date is set: October 28 in Rome. Associations, businesses, institutions are preparing for Water Forum. The network resource remains a large industrial business but also one of the thorniest managements of local public services. Administrators are continually under scrutiny for the quality of what comes out of the taps. Yet everything must be controlled on the basis of a 2001 regulation which establishes the values and substances that are not harmful to health. Sometimes something goes wrong. The campaigns for the greater consumption of tap water, fortunately, are gaining traction. Good practices also spread for reduce the amount of plastic bottles that end up in the sea.
The news of a collaboration between Legambiente and the Celli group, in view of the Forum, to enhance the water distributed goes in the direction of a less suspicious approach to “mayor's water”. The Celli Group is an Italian excellence in beverage dispensing systems with 6 factories and a turnover of 130 million euros. However, it is also present in systems for dispensing micro-filtered water by virtue of recent industrial operations. The announced collaboration has obvious commercial interest, but has caught environmentalists to characterize it in a sustainable way. No duplicity, therefore, but local work plans that can be good for families. This is why targeted campaigns are planned until 2021.
Italy it is one of the most water-consuming countries in Europe. In 2019, the consumption of bottled mineral water was 200 liters per capita: 60% more than the European average. “Not to mention that the production and transport of these bottles generates more than 1,2 million tons of CO2, in addition to the pollution of rivers and seas which is mostly represented by plastic waste“, he says Mauro Gallavotti, Celli Group CEO. With Legambiente they will immediately activate the Civico 5.0 campaign to strengthen the sharing economy and the water efficiency of buildings. Together they will promote the sale of sustainable products and at the Acqua Forum they will talk about it with experts and politicians. The strategic connection to the Italian Recovery plan in which Legambiente inserts the water resource is quick. The hope is for a revision of the Integrated Water Service system, of which little is said in the political buildings.
Machines for filtering water at home can be of help, for those who choose them and to have more safety. However, all the "problems of the sustainability of resource management, planning and redevelopment of the necessary infrastructures" remain. The aspects that motivate Legambiente's partnership with a large Italian group are in this summary of its Director George Zampetti. Then it's up to the institutions to do everything else. Because water must first of all be of good quality.
