Water sector: Italy needs 30 billion over 10 years to reduce the infrastructure gap

Europe needs EUR 1,700 billion between now and 2040 to bridge the infrastructure gap in the water sector, where it is no longer postponable to modernise systems that are too obsolete to improve efficiency and ensure long-term resilience, along with a strong commitment to upgrading wastewater treatment plants and managing emerging contaminants, such as Pfas (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in drinking water, on which Brussels has recently launched a further clampdown. And Italy? In order to get a grip on the chronic problems of its water system, starting with leakages that exceed 42% of the water injected into the network (against an EU average of 20%), at least 30 billion in investments are needed over 10 years to halve the rate of dispersion - which reaches 150 litres per day per inhabitant - and to modernise and upgrade the networks.

Tracing a precise snapshot of the 'state of health' of water infrastructures, not only in the Old Continent, is the analysis just published by the World Economic Forum and born from the collaboration with Acea and the University of Cambridge, on the occasion of the next appointment which, as usual, will be held in Davos next January. A slim document of about forty pages that lines up the criticalities of the system, but also, and above all, the exact perimeter of the change of step needed to intervene on this misalignment. Which, on a global level, would imply an effort of 11,400 billion by 2040 and, therefore, a considerable acceleration with respect to current trajectories. Unable to ensure, the new White Paper on Water points out, even access to safe and affordable water and sanitation services for the more than 3 billion people who still lack them.

As for the Old Continent, Italian and European water infrastructures are facing a significant gap due to years of underinvestment that have contributed to widening the gap with the most virtuous areas. And this has worsened the ageing of the water networks which, in the peninsula, reaches very high peaks: suffice it to say that 60% of the infrastructure is over 30 years old. What is urgently needed, therefore, is a change of approach that must start from an assumption of responsibility with respect to the strategic value of water, which Acea's CEO, Fabrizio Palermo, has been fighting for since his arrival at the helm of the group in September 2022. Strongly convinced that the water resource, as a silent engine of the economic fabric, as well as a crucial element for public health and safety, should not be considered the Cinderella of the energy system not only in Italy but in the rest of Europe. "There is no one-size-fits-all solution for all countries, but there is a need for a direction capable of guaranteeing an overall vision and adapting strategies to local specificities,' is the reasoning that Acea's CEO has been reiterating for some time and which he put on the table for the first time last year in the very town, perched on the Swiss Alps, where the World Economic Forum is being held, in the context of which Palermo chairs a sectoral group on water, called upon to identify the necessary recipe for a turnaround in the sector. Which passes, according to Acea's number one, also and above all through a strong focus on the modernisation of infrastructure.

The reason is obvious: the networks on which the Italian water system rests "date back decades," the top manager has repeatedly pointed out, "and they often lack modern technology. A node, that of the lack of technological drive, which also returns in the Wef paper. Where a great deal of emphasis is placed on the need to push strongly for innovation through the adoption of digital tools, automation and artificial intelligence with instruments such as green bonds, mixed finance and public-private partnerships.