Public and sustainable water is both a viable concept and a precious resource. That is why managing it intelligently is essential: here are ten ideas for doing so.
Water is a common good. Fundamental, precious and increasingly scarce. According to data from the World Food Programme of the United Nations, today around 748 million human beings lack access to drinking water and 2.5 billion face chronic scarcity.
This is why ensuring good management of water resources is essential (and indeed a moral duty) even in the more fortunate parts of the world. Here, then, are some ideas, proposals and experiences gathered from around the globe that can serve as a kind of decalogue: useful both for those who administer and manage water, and for citizens.
Businesses can make an exceptional contribution in terms of water saving. A study conducted by international certification body Dnv Gl Business Assurance and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization — cited by Gabriella Chiellino, president of eAmbiente Group, in an article published in the newspaper La Stampa — revealed that in Italy only 57 per cent of companies believe that water-related issues could have an impact on their business strategies. Meanwhile, 40 per cent say they are not informed about the specific legislation on water.
Against this backdrop, however, some businesses have made strong commitments to reducing consumption. This is the case, for example, with Barilla and Mutti. The former has, for instance, "relocated" wheat cultivation to Italy from an arid region of the United States, significantly reducing water use. Meanwhile, Mutti has calculated, together with Wwf, its total water footprint — that is, the quantity of water contained in each of its products, including the water needed, for example, to produce the packaging.
To encourage other companies to follow suit, tax incentives, awareness campaigns and preferential tariffs for the most virtuous can be devised. A task that falls, of course, to public administrations.
Particularly in Italy, the problem of hydrogeological instability is an extremely present reality in the lives of millions of citizens. One need only think of the floods that have struck the Ligurian hinterland in recent years. But as the National Council for the Green Economy has stated, "in river basins that have experienced exponential growth in urbanised land over several decades, it is not enough to halt soil consumption. It is necessary to go back: to restore to these areas their capacity to attenuate and absorb rainwater. A process that has been under way for some years now, particularly in English-speaking countries but also across much of northern Europe, through the spread of a variety of approaches and techniques that go collectively under the name of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems".
In practical terms, this means adopting measures and infrastructure aimed at increasing the runoff capacity of rainwater whenever small or medium-sized works are carried out: roads, interchanges, public or private buildings, factories. Because "through many small, widespread interventions, it is possible to make a very significant contribution." This also reduces the risk of contamination of aquifers, thereby preserving resources.
Another fundamental element of sound water resource management is reducing losses recorded across the network. With precisely this goal in mind, the company Lyonnaise des Eaux, which manages public water distribution in the French city of Lyon, launched, for example, "Smart metering". This is a remote sensing system (with meters fitted with long-range transmitters) that allows citizens to monitor their daily consumption and enables administrators to identify anomalous data.
And this is no trivial matter: the same company explains that on average water loss "amounts to 25 per cent, with peaks that can reach 40 per cent in some areas".
Also fundamental, of course, is the monitoring of public water quality. In Italy, the law provides for checks on a wide range of contaminants. But this is a rigid formula, uniform across the entire country. Whereas in reality each territory has its own characteristics, its own history. And therefore different needs.
For this reason, Gruppo Cap has proposed introducing specific monitoring zone by zone, in search of particular contaminants. Concentrating greater effort, for example, on testing for certain substances (in some areas, problems linked to arsenic or atrazine have been found, for instance). In this way, good water quality can be more easily guaranteed, to the benefit of public safety.
"Our group — adds Anglese — is the first in Italy to have launched a project such as the Wsp, Water Safety Plan, in application of the European directive on drinking water, in collaboration with the Istituto Superiore di Sanità. It is a comprehensive risk management system extending across the entire water supply chain, from abstraction through to the end user. It will make it possible to guarantee even better the quality of the drinking water supplied."
A further key point concerns technologies for the disinfection of public water. The use of chlorine (so-called chlorination) is one of the most widely used methods, thanks above all to the bactericidal properties of the substance. It is also the least costly procedure, allows the disinfecting agent to remain permanently in the water and presents no health risks.
But new technologies also exist. It is possible, for example, to eliminate most germs using membranes that filter the water, blocking viruses and bacteria. "But treatment plants can also be treated using ultraviolet radiation technology — Anglese points out — or through ozonisation. The advantage of the former is that contact between the so-called reagent and the water is avoided, unlike what happens with ozone or chlorine dioxide."
Another point worth reflecting on concerns the cost of water, with the aim of reducing consumption and (above all) waste. By adjusting prices, it is indeed probably possible to influence the use of the resource as well. In Italy, for example, water costs very little: on average €1.55 per cubic metre. In some cities even less, as low as 60 cents. In France, by contrast, it costs €2.82, and in Belgium and Luxembourg €3.44. Does this mean that our system is magnanimous and those of other countries are not? Not exactly. Certainly, water is a common, essential good and a fundamental right. But it is also true that an overly low bill can encourage an overly casual use of the resource.
In the French city of Rennes, for example, a tariff system defined in both social and ecological terms was introduced in July 2015. The first ten cubic metres of consumption are free, to help those on lower incomes. From the next drop onwards, a tariff applies, though it varies according to consumption: the more water is used, the higher the price per cubic metre. This applies to residents. For businesses, the regressive tariff (which, paradoxically, decreased as consumption increased) has been abolished.
As part of sound water management, the problem of containing the floodwaters caused by flooding also needs to be addressed. One possible solution is the construction of retention basins: large concrete "containers" designed to collect excess water near rivers. The problem is that the visual impact of these structures, often built in concrete, is particularly strong.
Gruppo Cap in Lombardy is therefore studying the possibility of routing water, in the event of flooding, into the network of irrigation canals — largely designed and built in the medieval period — with which the Milan province is richly endowed. This would make it possible to safeguard the landscape while at the same time ensuring the safety of the area. "It should be said," Anglese observes, "that for the correct management of stormwater flowing into sewage networks, the real solution would be to eliminate it at source: if rainwater from the roofs of all buildings were no longer fed into the sewers but dispersed in other ways — for example by infiltrating it into the subsoil — considerable results could be achieved."
"Retention basins," the engineer adds, "represent a complementary solution, bearing in mind that their construction is very often beset with difficulties. One possibility — which Gruppo Cap is studying and evaluating together with the University of Milan — is effectively to reuse the minor water network for widespread retention: to recover what the Cistercians already achieved with their water meadows and irrigation canals, so as to drain away excess water and use it in agriculture."
Infrastructure interventions can also be useful for improving networks (and their landscape impact). The removal or set-back of the embankments of what experts call the "floodplain" of a watercourse makes it possible to create natural flood-expansion areas. In other words, non-artificial reservoirs that allow excess flows to be collected — without resorting to infrastructure that forces watercourses to be artificialised. In this regard, exemplary projects have been carried out by the Servizio Tecnico di bacino Romagna, a body established in 2012 with the aim of overseeing local water catchments.
But there is more. It is also possible, for example, to adopt reforestation policies for floodplain areas in order to slow runoff: this yields the dual benefit of reducing risk and helping the environment through the presence of new trees. One such example has been realised in the Parco dell'Oglio Sud, in Lombardy.
A perhaps more straightforward, though equally effective, way of tackling flooding can also be to restore the natural sinuosity of watercourses. Many of these were modified in past decades in order to reclaim land for agricultural or building purposes.
This increased the speed of the water and, consequently, the flood risk downstream. But how can a river's historic course be restored? For instance by encouraging natural geomorphological processes — or, where it is not possible to follow natural processes, through artificial works.
Looking finally at everyday life, it must not be forgotten that encouraging the use of tap water as much as possible is essential. Bottled water, in fact, despite being far more damaging to the environment than tap water (above all because of the plastic bottles and the transport required to distribute it across the territory), is widely used in wealthy countries — also for reasons of "style".
So, nine years ago the Paris drinking water utility, Eau de Paris, decided to produce a designer glass bottle — aesthetically original and appealing — designed by Pierre Charpin. A way of persuading citizens to cut their consumption of mineral water, which according to a survey was the preferred choice for 51 per cent of residents. These residents claimed that putting a bottle on the table was "more elegant" than presenting a carafe.
The designer bottles were distributed on World Water Day 2007, in front of the Hôtel de Ville (the seat of the city council): an occasion also to promote the mineral and hygienic qualities of Paris's water. Today the carafes are sold to the public at a price of ten euros.