The national water legislation framework is trying to be conformed to the EU Water Framework Directives. The largest part of the environmental legislation in Italy can be regarded as a consequence of the implementation of the European Directives but, although Italian legislative and institutional framework is broadly coherent with Europe, there is a large gap between policy and implementation due in part to the delays in developing an environmental policy.
At the moment, cornerstones of the national policies are the following: the law 183/89, the law 36/94, better known as Galli law, and the legislation act 152/99 which introduces important elements in accordance with the Water Framework Directive, even if the latter must be still adopted in Italy.
In line with the increased sensibility towards the defence of the environment, the law 183 includes modern concepts concerning the rational and safe use of the land and water. The law deals with the global management of the water bodies, the basin, the related authorities, within the general framework of land defence and water resources planning aimed at adopting an integrated approach to land and water conservation problems.
It introduced the “river basin” as the basis for the planning, establishing river basin authorities to coordinate planning, construction and to monitor activities within the basin. The basin Authorities include a political Committee with representatives from Ministries and Regions, and a technical Committee appointed by the Ministry of Public Works. The law foresees to entrust to the Regional Governments the identification of the regional river basins within their territory. The law established the National Committee for Technical Services and Interventions for Soil Protection, with high level political representation and the National Committee for Soil Conservation. It has also reformed the national technical services and got high level political involvement through the Prime Minister.
Periodically the basin Authority must define and update the water budget in order to assure the equilibrium between the availability of resources and the different uses.
In order to assure the equilibrium, the Authority of the competent river basin takes care of the prescribed use. The basins characterised by relevant withdrawals or water transfer, must be regulated in order to maintain the minimum flow needed to preserve the river-bed and the associated ecosystems.
The strategic importance of this law is basically linked to the introduction of new fundamental concepts: “hydrographic basin”, considered not only a geo-morphological but also social and economic reality, “basin authority”, an institutional Body completely new in charge of planning activities within the basin, “basin plan”, an instrument which contains the guidelines for the interventions aimed at the safeguard of the territory and the environment.
The law 36/94 came five years later and its main objective was the reorganisation of the water systems on the basis of efficiency and economic criteria, leading to an integrated and comprehensive management of the water resources. It establishes a transformation process in the water sector of great importance and complexity whose final objective is the integrated water management for civil use with costs completely covered by the tariff.
Furthermore, it states that the use of water for human needs is a priority. Other kinds of use are admitted when the resource is sufficient, established that they do not offend the quality of the water for the human consumption. It also introduces the Organisations and the criteria necessary to meet the following tasks:
1. The “optimal territorial District” (called ATO) by which it is possible to overtake the fragmentation of the previous managements.
2. The integrate water service: all the complete cycle of water (distribution, drinking water treatment, sewage and wastewater treatment) is entrusted to a unique management.
3. A unique management Organism which will manage directly the integrated water system of the optimal territorial district (ATO). It will be supervised a Body, the “district Authority”, composed by the Mayors of the Municipalities included in the ATO.
4. A new “district tariff” which will allow the total coverage of investment and operating costs, previously charged to the public balance.
The water tariff reorganisation purses the task of the financial autonomy of the managements, constituting the necessary condition for the real industrialisation of the sector.
The District Authority has the task to establish the new tariff for the first year together with the percentage of annual increases, according to a previous definition of the necessary investments and the financial and management charges for the realisation of the investment programme, taking also into account the real costs for the management improvement, overtaking the fragmentary management. The reorganisation of the tariff system allows the adjustment of the tariff taking into account the coverage of all the charges connected to the water service management.
Another main objective of the Galli law was the water saving obtained through a series of measures, with the following as the most important:
· The restoration of the leaking water distribution networks;
· The installation of dual distribution networks in new urban and industrial settlements of relevant dimensions;
· Diffusion of techniques and methods for water saving in the urban, industrial and agricultural sectors.
Another very important objective is the treatment of urban wastewater, according to the EC law n. 271/91. The law indicates reclamation and reuse as viable alternatives for industrial and agricultural uses to cope with overall water demand.
The Galli law made all surface and groundwater public property. Before 1994, public Authorities needed to explicitly declare that water was a public property on a case by case basis. The practical implication was that all important surface waters were considered public and needed a licence for abstraction and use. In contrast, groundwater was considered part of a landowner’s right and abstraction could be done without a licence. The law 36/94 changed the regime, stating that all water uses needed to be licensed. However its implementation is difficult because tens of thousands of private groundwater abstractions needed to be identified and monitored. Under this law, the discretional powers of the licensing Authorities to decide on water conflicts are constrained by several rules – the need to respect water balance within a basin; release minimum flows; and prioritise drinking supply over agricultural and productive uses, in case of water stress. Originally, the peripheral Authorities linked to the Ministry of Public Works were in charge, but from the 1970s onwards with the creation of regions, the regional Authorities took over water policy, abstraction licensing and water quality.
Pollution control and environmental monitoring have been reorganised under regional environmental Agencies. Water quality is seen in the context of “final use requirements” and the principle “polluter pays” has been introduced.
The Galli law aims to create inter-municipal water and sewage Utilities at the appropriate scale which the regions have indicated.
This law has been adopted in Sardinia with the regional law n.29/97. At the moment in the island an optimal territorial district with the boundaries of the same region has been constituted together with the District Authority for planning and control the integrated water management system. Also the Regional Agency for the environmental control has been constituted but it is not yet fully operating.
The legislative act on water quality safeguard (152/1999) was conceived to adopt two EU Directives, 91/271 on urban wastewater treatment and 91/676 on protecting water from agricultural pollution. It replaced the previous Merli Act (319/1986), which regulated wastewater discharges and has introduced minimum water quality standards for different uses, defining stages in achieving environmental objectives. The act introduced the “water safeguard plan” by which the measures to reach good environmental status for surface and groundwater (by the 31th of December 2016) must be adopted. Withthis plan all aquatic ecosystems, considered significant according to the indications of the act, must be monitored and classified in order to assess their ecological and chemical status, highlighting their vulnerability and the possible causes of pollution. In the decree, the limits of concentrations for the reuse of wastewater are reported. A definition of the best treatment practises is still being prepared. This law imposes strict microbiological limits on water quality that are higher than those of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Such tight standards (not always followed) normally require complex treatments, and this negatively affect the costs, decreasing the appeal of secondary water resources. The law also reports the concentration limits for classifying water quality of resources used for civil uses.
For the reorganisation of water tariff for the agricultural sector in Sardinia, the regional law n.9 /96, which foresees the installation of flow meters in the irrigated lands in order to allow the reorganisation of water tariffs paid according to the cubic meters consumed , is important.