WATER: CONFINDUSTRIA AND UTILITALIA, SIX PRINCIPLES FOR SUSTAINABLE, SAFE AND EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT

Rome, 21 March 2025 - Water is a strategic asset for the economy and for sustainability goals. On the eve of World Water Day, Confindustria and Utilitalia share the need to strengthen a sustainable management model for water resources from a social, environmental and economic point of view; this is to ensure a safe and reliable supply of water to the country system.

First and foremost, action is needed at the European level to ensure a harmonised approach to legislation, which is currently fragmented and a source of complexity and inefficiency. The European Commission's intention to adopt a strategy on water resilience goes in the right direction.

At the national level, it is first necessary to put the governance. "Complex water-related phenomena, such as hydrogeological instability, cannot be governed with fragile structures and uncertain and overlapping competences" - Annalisa Sassi, President of the Regional Representatives Council of Confindustria, explains - "We must have a common vision, starting with a clear and homogeneous regulatory framework that makes a system that is too fragmented today coherent. It means that the answers to the problems need a governance streamlined, territory-focused, but embedded in a coordinated system'. continues President Sassi.

The issue must also be addressed from the point of view of the costs required to maintain and develop the water infrastructure. "In recent years - explains Utilitalia President Filippo Brandolini - investments by integrated water service operators have increased significantly, reaching EUR 4 billion per year, or EUR 65 per inhabitant in 2023, with an estimated EUR 80 per year per inhabitant in 2025 also thanks to the boost of public funding. But in light of the effects of climate change and European water directives, a further acceleration is needed to reach 6 billion per year. Reasoning in a future perspective that goes beyond the time horizon of 2026 and therefore of the PNRR, the resources deriving from the tariff should also be flanked by a share of public contribution of at least 1 billion euro per year for the next 10 years, to carry out an extraordinary plan of interventions aimed at ensuring the protection of the resource and the territory, as well as guaranteeing the continuity of the service even in periods of increasingly frequent climatic stress".

It is also crucial to ensure sustainable consumption of resources, based on the principles of the circular economy. "Promoting a circular economy approach to water use is also very important. It is crucial to reduce resource consumption and protect ecosystems. Companies can do a lot in terms of recycling and reusing water in industrial processes. But it is necessary to eliminate regulatory and other fragmentations that limit the potential for investment"Lara Ponti, Vice President for Environmental Transition and ESG Objectives of Confindustria, concludes.

Confindustria and Utilitalia share the following principles:

1.        Multi-sectoral approach. Promoting constant dialogue between the various users of the water resource (civil, industrial and agricultural) with a view to a multi-sectoral approach. The response to the challenges posed by climate change can only be coordinated, comprehensive and infrastructural.

2.        Fragmentation of governance in territorial government. Transform the current fragmentation of administrative governance and management into governance capacity by defining a homogeneous regulatory framework that restores order and coherence to the system. It is necessary to overcome those constraints that currently limit the possibility of planning and implementing investments, starting with those in works to combat hydrogeological instability, an area in which the absence of clear and unified governance continues to generate inefficiencies, delays and overlapping competences.

3.        Shortening the decision-making and permitting chain. We need proximity in the choices and vision in the processes: a short chain with fewer intermediate steps and more coordination, to govern water effectively and at the service of the territories. We also need to simplify and speed up the authorisation processes for building the necessary infrastructure.

4.        Promoting the production of complementary water. Introduce a general regulation stating that the reuse of water for industrial use must always be allowed, both at the same site and at third-party users, in compliance with the values set by law. Also, encourage the construction of desalination plants for the production of complementary water, especially in areas with high water stress and islands.

5.        Supporting investment. Accompany the investments supported by the tariff with a stable public finance lever (as is currently happening with the NRP) for the next 10 years. This is in order to accelerate the construction of the necessary infrastructure for water resilience.

6.        Management fragmentation of the integrated water service. Overcome the current fragmentation of governance and management, as provided for by legislation for some time and most recently also by the NRP, so as to spread industrial management throughout the country, which not only guarantees efficiency and quality, but is also a necessary prerequisite for increasing investment realisation.

Based on these principles, Confindustria and UTILITALIA intend to continue their cooperation and develop shared analyses and proposals.