Water privatisation in Europe: a growing phenomenon

Water? Public, but under industrial management. With external companies under total public control or with other formulas in which there are companies that are majority controlled by the public but in which private minority shareholders are also part. It is a varied world that concerns the management of the integrated water sector. That is, the water resource as a whole. Because the water that arrives in homes, businesses and drinking fountains has to go through a process of control and purification before it is put into the network.

"Let it be clear, water, as was said in the 2011 referendum when we all voted, is public,' says Ilvo Sorrentino, national head of Filctem CGIL, 'but this does not mean that it should be free regardless, also because behind the water that arrives every day there is a system of services and costs that concern drinking water, network management, and the control of reservoirs and aqueducts. It is precisely for this reason that there is the issue of tariffs: 'The operators charge costs to ensure that the water reaches homes and provides an efficient service.

There is then the case of Italia: 'Our country ranks first in the EU in terms of volumes of water withdrawn for drinking use, with around 150 cubic metres per inhabitant per year,' he argues. Unfortunately, however, of the approximately 8 billion cubic metres of water fed into the network, 3.4 billion cubic metres are lost: 42.2% of the total. For this reason it is necessary that upstream there is an industrial management that brings together service, programming and planning of interventions'. No less important is another aspect that "very often is not taken into consideration": the costs of the water service also include charges for the disposal of black water. "This activity also has an important cost," Sorrentino continues, "and we must not forget that 13% of people, 7 million, are not connected to the sewage system.

Today, service management is not the same everywhere. This is also highlighted in the annual report of the Utilitas Foundation with the support of Utilitalia and other institutions, entitled Blue Book 2025 integrated water service and extended water supply chain, according to which "only 54% of the population lives in areas where the integrated water service is entrusted to a single manager, without direct management by municipalities". Not only that, "the remaining 46% live in areas where the governance of the service is still fragmented or not fully consolidated. Among these, about seven million inhabitants, or 12% of the population, are served by economic management, i.e. managed directly by municipalities, often with lower standards and investments than industrial operators". Critical issues are concentrated above all in the South and the Islands, where 82% of municipalities are not yet covered by industrial management.

Then there are the different management options. An example? 'Let's think of Rome, the service is guaranteed by Acea, which is 51% publicly owned and the rest by other shareholders,' adds Ilvo Sorrentino, 'but the majority is public. Moreover, its industrial organisation allows it to carry out activities ranging from guaranteeing the service to repairing street leaks and scheduling interventions'. That is, the so-called long-term planning. Which concerns the study of solutions to avoid leaving cities or territories dry. 'In Lazio we are working on a series of interventions,' he adds, 'precisely to prevent something similar from happening. Private participation in the management of the water resource, according to the trade unionist, should not be seen as privatisation. 'Only an industrial management of the entire system,' he adds, 'allows planning and programming, even if there are difficulties'. Hence an openness towards the so-called hybrid formula with the entry of private individuals or, in any case, the management of the entire game to publicly controlled but external companies. As is the case in Sardinia, where the water service is managed by Abbanoa, a company with public but private shareholders. 'This is a company that can win the challenge to give Sardinia the management of water entirely in public hands. In small steps it is becoming a respectable company with a decisive change of pace'. As for privatisation: 'Our position has always been this,' he emphasises: 'never water management in the hands of private speculation. We have made ourselves available from the outset to achieve this goal'.