(Finance) – The Ministry of Sustainable Infrastructure and Mobility (Mims) has assigned, as part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr), 607 million euros to 21 projects aimed at reducing the losses of drinking water in the aqueduct network. This was announced in a note by the same Ministry, underlining that the “financed projects will allow to equip by 31 December 2024 about 27,500 kilometers of pipelines for potable use with innovative instruments and control systems for the localization and reduction of losses, favoring optimal management. of the water resource, reducing waste and limiting inefficiencies, while at the same time improving the quality of the service provided to citizens. By 31 March 2026 it is planned to extend these interventions to a further 41,700 kilometers of pipelines “.
Eleven interventions admitted to funding concern the regions of the North and Center (for a total of 342 million euros) and ten those of the South (for 265 million), in compliance with the law that reserves at least 40% of investments for the South. A further 293 million euros will be assigned at the end of the second time window of the call which will close next October, to allow participation also in the territorial areas that have in the meantime identified the manager of the Integrated Water Service (for example, Molise, Calabria , part of Campania and Sicily). The Pnrr interventions, planned for the reduction of losses in the water sector (totaling 900 million euros) are added to those already financed through the European React-Eu program managed by Mims, equal to 480 million euros, for the implementation of 17 interventions always with the same purpose in four southern regions (Basilicata, Campania, Puglia and Sicily).
“The strengthening and improvement of safety in water infrastructures, even in light of the climate crisis, they are a priority for our country, which has been neglected for too long. Since last year, the Ministry has put in place huge investments for a total of 4.3 billion euros, in order to bridge the infrastructural gap with respect to the needs of the country and between North and South ”notes Minister Enrico Giovannini. In particular, 2.9 billion euros come from the NRP, 450 million from the latest budget law, 480 million from the React-EU fund and 468 million from the 2014-2020 Development and Cohesion Fund. “We have concentrated resources on two areas: the reduction of drinking water losses, essential to ensure an essential service for citizens, and the improvement of the security of water supply, to increase the resilience of existing large dams and their functionality – added the Minister – In addition, the investments were accompanied by a reform, envisaged by the NRP, of the governance system to ensure the planning of interventions and by new rules which will also allow the timely implementation of interventions by the concessionaires who manage the large dams “.
The proposals for interventions to reduce losses, financed and presented in response to the public tender reserved for subjects regulated by the Regulatory Authority for Energy Reti Ambiente (Arera), were selected by the mixed Commission composed of representatives of the Mims and Arera, which examined 119 proposals received by 31 May 2022 and compiled the ranking available on the Ministry website.
The effectiveness of the individual proposals – concludes the note released by the Ministry – was assessed through precise criteria, based on the quantification of changes in general macro-indicators of technical quality set by the Arera, which take into consideration the percentage reduction effects of water losses, the decrease in service interruption periods and the quality of the water supplied. It should be noted that, on the basis of these criteria, the Commission has positively assessed a much higher number of proposals than those that can be financed with the available resources, which therefore represent a pool of projects that can be financed hopefully for future resources.
(Photo: Rudy and Peter Skitterians)