Water: investments rise to EUR 90 per inhabitant. But the knot of economic management remains

Investments in the water sector in Italia continue to rise, averaging EUR 90 per year in the 2021-2029 period, with a peak in the 2025-2026 two-year period due to the boost provided by the NRP. An increase that has led to an improvement in service quality, although the gap between industrial management and 'in economia' management by local authorities, especially in the South, remains. This is the snapshot taken by the new Blue Book, produced by the Utilitatis Foundation and promoted by Utilitalia, which contains the usual punctual analysis of data from the water sector and has been developed with the collaboration of ENEA, the National Civil Protection Department, the Higher Institute of Health, the River Basin District Authorities, the Cima Foundation and The European House-Ambrosetti.

The document first of all highlights the jump in investments in the water sector, from an average of EUR 66 per inhabitant per year in 2021 to EUR 106 in 2026 (the last year of the NRP). Until 2029, a physiological reduction of about 10% is expected compared to the peak years, but the level will still be around EUR 90 per year, 21% higher than in 2021. "This demonstrates," emphasises Mario Rosario Mazzola, president of the Utilitatis Foundation, "how the Pnrr has been not a substitute but a driver of managers' investments, testifying to the structural repositioning of a sector that has developed industrial maturity in a short time.

The sector, points out Utilitalia president Luca Dal Fabbro, 'is leaving behind the Pnrr phase with greater industrial maturity and organisational capacity. Now, however, we need a public contribution of at least EUR 2 billion per year for the next 10 years, in order to carry out an extraordinary plan of interventions to ensure the protection of the resource and the territory, which cannot fall solely on tariffs'.

There remains, as mentioned, the problem of 'in economia' management where it is the local authorities that directly manage the water service: in these cases, in fact, investments are still very low (EUR 22 per inhabitant in 2024). This picture still affects 1,310 municipalities with about 6.9 million inhabitants (12% of the Italian population), especially in the South, hindering investments and economies of scale. On the other hand, the governance of the water service has made significant progress with a growing aggregation towards industrial management: today 86% of the population (49.8 million inhabitants) lives in municipalities with an integrated service entrusted to a single operator. The process of taking over from the single operator in several territorial areas, especially in Calabria, Molise and Valle d'Aosta, is progressively reducing the number of managements in the hands of local authorities. These are therefore positive processes in the implementation of sector governance, which are also the result of the reform actions promoted by the NRP.

On the national average expenditure, in 2025 the bar was set at EUR 411 per year for a three-member family (150 cubic metres), up by 7 per cent compared to the previous year, partly due to the increase in investments. Despite the increase, the unit tariff averaged 2.6 euro per cubic metre, remaining below the European average (3.4 euro per cubic metre) and confirming a balance between sustainability for households and investment requirements.