(Finance) – The water emergency could put 320 billion euros at risk between dewatering companies and the extended water supply chain, 18% of Italian GDP, but the crisis can be responded to with the circular model of the 5Rs: Collection, Recovery, Reuse , Recovery and Reduction. This is the operational proposal against waste and drought that arises from the evidence of White Paper 2023 “Value of Water for Italy”, now in its fourth edition and created byObservatory established by the Valore Acqua Community for Italy. The Community was created in 2019 by The European House – Ambrosetti to represent the extended water supply chain in Italy through 31 partners ranging from network managers to service providers, from the agricultural to the industrial sector, from technology providers to the relevant institutions and scientific partners utilitalia And Utilitatis Foundation. The volume was presented at an event organized in Rome by The European House – Ambrosetti on the occasion of “World Water Day” which brought together all the protagonists – institutional and economic – of the Italian world of water and which also saw the presentation of the Blue Book 2023 of the Utilitatis and Utilitalia Foundation.
TECHNOLOGY AND REUSE AGAINST WASTE AND DROUGHT – As emerges from the pages of the 2023 White Paper “Valore Acqua per l’Italia” to enable the smart and digital transition of the extended water supply chain, it is necessary to better protect the water infrastructures: also due to limited investments, the replacement rate of the networks Italian water systems (25% are over 50 years old) is 3.8 meters per km per year: at this rate, it would take 250 years for their complete maintenance. The extended water supply chain is currently little digitized: 50% of water meters in Italian homes are more than 20 years old, smart meters – which record consumption and transmit the information to the supplier for monitoring and billing – they represent only 4% of the total meters, 12 times less than the European average where almost one out of two (49%) is already “intelligent”. If all homes were equipped with smart meters, up to 2.4 billion euros could be saved per year, reducing water demand by 513.3 million m3 (about 10% of annual civil water consumption). Today we recover only 11% of the rainwater that falls in Italy and 1.3 million citizens, especially in the South, do not have a purification system. Furthermore, only 4% of the wastewater produced in Italy is destined for reuse
direct, against a potential of 23%. Likewise the sewage sludge, of which 53.4% is destined today for disposal when it could be reused. “The infrastructural conditions of the extended Italian water supply chain together with the ever growing
pressure on water resources made dramatic by the effects of climate change – he said Valerio De Molli, managing partner and CEO of The European House – Ambrosetti – quickly impose a paradigm shift on us: the transition to a circular management of water resources is the priority. The model – explained De Molli – consists of 5 actions summarized in the formulation of the “5Rs” such as “Collection”, “Recovery”, “Reuse”, “Recovery” and “Reduction” of withdrawals, consumption and losses.
ITALIANS CONSUME THE MOST WATER THAN ANYONE IN THE EU – The data in the 2023 White Book, integrated with the evidence in Utilitalia’s Blue Book 2023, confirm that Italy, with over 9 billion m3 per year, is the first country in the European Union for water drawn for civil use. The Italian average of drinking water consumption reaches 154 m3 per inhabitant, only Greece (157.4) beats us. If we consider water consumption for civil use, Italians are unrivaled among the countries of the Union: 220 liters per inhabitant per day against an EU average of 165.
DATA FROM THE UTILITATIS FOUNDATION BLUE BOOK 2023 – The Italian water infrastructure is old and not very efficient: 60%
of the network is more than 30 years old, 25% more than half a century old. The percentage of water losses during the distribution phase reaches 41.2%, placing our country in fourth last place among the 27 EU+UK countries, while that relating to linear losses equal to 9,072 m3/km/year places us in last place. place in Europe. According to the data from the Utilitatis Foundation Blue Book 2023, presented during the day and partly contained in the 2023 White Book “Value of Water for Italy”, in response to this situation, industrial managers in the sector increased investments by 70 % over the last 20 years, reaching an average of 56 euros per inhabitant in 2021. Contribution to growth
of investments is however limited by the presence of numerous managements in the economy, above all in the South, where the average value of investments stands at around 8 Euros per inhabitant in the last 5 years.
THE WATER CHAIN IS WORTH 18% OF GDP – Water is a fundamental resource for the operations of 1.5 million agricultural companies, about 330 thousand pumping manufacturing companies and over 9 thousand companies in the energy sector. In 2021, the extended water cycle2 generated an added value of 9.4 billion euros, with an average annual growth of +4.3% in the period 2010-2021 (10 times Italian manufacturing), and employs 92,400 people. This supply chain is worth almost as much as the pharmaceutical industry and more than double that of clothing. The water sector is made up almost entirely (97.7%) of companies with a turnover of less than 50 million Euros which contribute only marginally to the overall revenues, while large companies generate a contribution to the revenues
of 63.5% despite representing only 3.3% of the total.
“WATER VALUE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT”: ITALY IN THE LAST PLACES – Through the “Value of Water for Sustainable Development” index, The European House – Ambrosetti has mapped the sustainability of water resource management in European countries according to the UN Sustainable Development objectives for the 2030 Agenda: 10 of the 17 objectives and 53 of the 90 targets are affected by water. In achieving these objectives, Italy remains, as in 2022, among the last positions: eighteenth (score of 5.3 on a scale from 1 to 10) out of the 28 countries analysed.
EU INVESTMENTS AT 300 BILLION EUROS BY 2030 – In 2020, spending on water supply, including sanitation, in the 27 EU+UK countries was 100 billion euros. the European Commission and the OECD have estimated that a
increase of almost three times (+189%) of this figure by 2030 reaching almost 300 billion euros. One of the key tools to guide and support investments will be the European Taxonomy adopted by the European Commission for the unambiguous definition of which investments can be defined as sustainable. However, 82% of the water service operators involved in a research developed in the 2023 White Paper edited by The European House – Ambrosetti Community Valore Acqua per l’Italia, declare that they encountered difficulties in verifying compliance with the European Taxonomy Criterion with reference to the energy saving indicator and 76.5% with reference to water losses. The companies that have defined specific investment lines in Italy expect to reach the thresholds defined by the technical criteria by 2030, with an amount of accumulated resources dedicated by the operators in the period between 60 and 100 million euros as regards the consumption of energy, and between 150 and 200 million euros for water losses.
AN EDUCATION PROJECT ON WATER IN SCHOOLS – The key role of an information campaign aimed at the youngest emerges from the analyzes of the White Paper. In Italy 20% of fresh water consumption is domestic and it is therefore necessary to encourage more responsible consumption with young people appearing to be the ones most inclined to consume water from the tap. The Valore Acqua per l’Italia Community has launched a pilot project in Italian schools which involves the creation of a “Water Kit” designed to spread the knowledge developed by the Community on the water supply chain with suitable interpretations for young people. water and the importance of consumption styles
responsible and aware. The project will last about a year and is involving the network of 27 TRED high schools (Experimental High School for Ecological and Digital Transition) and the National Association of Principals (7 all-inclusive schools in the south of the country, for a total of over 5 thousand students).
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