The Piedmont and Lombardy Regions have already taken the field against the effects of the drought. There are various hypotheses on the table, from the reuse of waste water to the use of desalination plants

Un po’ di pioggia nel mese di agosto non basta per archiviare il problema della siccità, responsabile di gravissimi danni soprattutto nel settore agricolo. Inoltre, non può cancellare nemmeno l’agenda dei provvedimenti da mettere in cantiere il prima possibile, sapendo che il cambiamento climatico non farà che peggiorare la crisi idrica nei prossimi anni. Sostenibilità, ambiente e innovazione devono andare quindi di pari passo, allo scopo di trovare la soluzione migliore per la crisi dell’acqua, una questione sulla quale per fortuna stanno arrivando i primi segnali positivi. L’occasione per fare il punto della situazione è il Festival dell’Acqua a Torino dal 21 al 23 settembre promosso da Utilitalia, la federazione delle utilities italiane. 

The Piedmont Marshall Plan

Meanwhile, something is moving in two major northern regions, Piedmont and Lombardy, which have experienced particularly significant damage to their agricultural operations. The Piedmont Region has approved what it has called "a Marshall Plan" for water with a really big budget, just under 500 million euros, partly financed by the NRP, for a series of structural measures ranging from reducing water losses to interconnections, from increasing storage capacity to diversifying sources of supply.

Wastewater to irrigate Milan's Parco del Nord (North Park)

In Lombardy, the Regional Council has approved the new Regional Water Protection Plan (2023-2028): action will focus on fighting water scarcity and will incorporate national and European guidelines on sustainable development, climate change adaptation and biodiversity. Meanwhile, in Milan, the Parco del Nord, one of the city's green lungs, has been irrigated with properly purified domestic wastewater since this summer, one of the measures taken at the height of the drought emergency. 

Italy, today, directly reuses only 4 percent of its wastewater, but all experts agree that it is an activity from which we can reap far greater benefits. In Milan, for example, there are 41 sewage treatment plants: half of these feed the purified water into rivers and streams; 17, instead, provide water resources to farms; while in 4 cases there is a direct use such as washing roads or watering city greenery.

At a hearing in the Italian Camera (Italian "House of Commons") this summer, Arera, the Energy and Environment Authority, also stressed the desirability of exploiting "the potential of water resource reuse, for example through the use of wastewater reuse, including by promoting the activation of measures and projects with the aim of expanding wastewater treatment and recovery capacity." It is a measure on which the European Union has also intervened with the approval of a regulation that will come into force next year, and which aims precisely to provide a clear framework for this type of activity and on which the Italian authorities are working, albeit with some delays. 

The role of Fisia, a national leader in water treatment

Our country has the technological capabilities and resources to make a quantum leap in water management and drought control. Among water treatment companies, the Italian leader is Fisia Italimpianti (Webuild Group), which has installed wastewater treatment plants serving 6.6 million people from Turkey to Argentina, passing through Italy, of course. For a structural solution to the problem of Italy's water crisis, the Webuild Group-which by the way has just returned number one in the world in the water segment, topping the list of the largest international contractors compiled by ENR, the most authoritative U.S. magazine in the field-also proposed a decisive acceleration in the construction of desalination plants. The project, called "Acqua per la vita," envisions, when fully operational, the construction of 15 to 16 plants throughout Italy that would solve the problem structurally. Fisia in this area has internationally recognized know-how, with plants in Arabia, Oman, and Dubai producing more than 4 million cubic meters of potable water every day.