Water Resources of Italy by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030364601
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

8.1 Introduction

Municipal water supply, drainage and wastewater treatment are probably the most relevant water resources issues in Italy. According to the recent census estimation (ISTAT 2015), although the supply of drinking water is guaranteed to almost the whole Italian population (98%), and also sewage systems and wastewater treatment serve a large part of the population (93% and 88%, respectively), several problems concern the management of municipal water services. The main technical problems perceived by public opinion include the reduction of water availability during frequent severe droughts which hit various regions and produce water emergencies or the poor functioning of treatment plants and the connected increase of pollution risk in the receiving streams, or coastal areas, where outfalls are located. However, other problems, often not perceived by the community, can be more serious, such as the progressive pollution of sources of supply, particularly groundwater, due to the industrial outfalls or to the use of pesticides in agriculture (diffusive pollution), as well as the inadequate treatment of new biological contamination (e.g. Giardia cysts). The more widely known issue about management of the municipal water services refers to the controversial choice between private and public company. This issue arose during the referendum of 2011, which abrogated the priority of private companies to entrust the service and eliminated the portion of tariff allocated to cover the costs of capital.

This chapter presents the evolution of the regulatory framework of municipal water services and a state-of-the-art view of the main technical and management problems in Italy. Several perspectives for facing the main technical financial and environmental challenges of the future are discussed. The chapter is organized as follows. First, an analysis of the development of legislation on municipal water services is carried out (Sect. 8.2), highlighting that most of the rules derive from the general legislation acts regulating municipal public services and from the European water directives. Afterwards, the technical features and the management characteristics of the infrastructures for water supply, sewerage systems and wastewater treatment are described (Sects. 8.3 and 8.4). Main problems identified in the structure and/or in the operation of each component of the urban water service are discussed, and several measures aimed at facing the main challenges are proposed (Sect. 8.5). Lastly, some concluding remarks are drawn (Sect. 8.6).

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