Water is a precious and increasingly scarce commodity that requires a sustainable management strategy, especially as regardsfresh water, which represents just 3% of that available. In Italy, too, efforts are being made to improve the efficiency of the water network which, however, is still a "work in progress": at the end of 2015, the water supplied to the distribution networks in our country amounted to around 4,8 billion cubic metres, with a average dispersion of 40,66% (against 37,19% in 2012) and peaks of over 50% in Central and Southern Italy. A correct management of the water resource and associated energy consumption becomes fundamental: in the distribution business, for example, the theoretical potential for annual energy savings translates into around 370 million euros, and water savings into 2,7 billion cubic meters of water.
The theme of water management is at the center of the first edition of the Water Management Report of theEnergy&Strategy Group of the School of Management of the Milan Polytechnic, presented today at the Polytechnic. The attention of the study, the first dedicated to "blue gold", is focused on the civil water network and on industry, where five sub-sectors were analyzed in the fields of chemistry, iron and steel, non-metallic mineral processing , paper and textile production, which together cover about 55% of total water consumption in the industrial sector. Agriculture will be considered in the second edition of the Water Management Report, due out at the end of the year.
The total volume of fresh water withdrawn from the environment in our country is approximately 33,7 billion cubic meters per year, half (50,45%) used in agriculture, which however only marginally uses the water network. The industry uses 22,85% of it and is mainly based on dedicated withdrawal systems; the rest (26,70%) is the prerogative of the civil sector, which is supplied almost exclusively from the water network.
“Improving the efficiency of the Italian water network promises important advantages – he says Victor Church, director of the Energy&Strategy Group of the School of Management of the Milan Polytechnic – but we need to improve the involvement and collaboration between stakeholders. In the case of the civil network, for example, the Authority for Electricity, Gas and the Water System (AEEGSI), the operators of the Optimum Territorial Areas (ATO), the maintainers of the civil water network, the wholesalers and suppliers of technologies must walk together towards the goal of reducing losses along the entire network by exploiting the opportunities associated with the new tariff system and making the best use of all technologies”.
It is precisely in the new tariff system that investments in the water sector (at the end of 2015 about 11,85 billion euros of public resources) must find the main source of financing, "but the legislation should start a virtuous circle that links higher investments to better remuneration”, Church concludes. For example, the study highlights the opportunities offered by no-dig techniques for rehabilitation and replacement works with lower costs and lower environmental impact. Even in the industrythere are numerous systems, thanks to technological evolution, which would allow both a reduction in water consumption and an increase in profitability, just as there are little-exploited opportunities for efficiency improvement because they collide with rather low costs of the 'raw material water' - he continues the director of the Energy&Strategy Group -. In this sense, it is important that policymakers define regulatory and fiscal conditions suitable for encouraging investments aimed at saving fresh water. A virtuous path of sustainable use of the water resource can be triggered, above all if all public and private actors are sensitized to the issue of water management and it becomes convenient to invest".
This first edition of the Water Management Report opens the door to further insights: as far as the water network is concerned, the progress of the interventions described will be monitored to verify the actual steps forward and broaden the analysis to the two activities of the integrated water cycle, sewage and purification, which have not been investigated; as regards the industrial sectors, the overall macro-sectors will be examined, to evaluate more fully the potential for water-energy efficiency.
The civil water network. The Report first analyzes the regulatory framework that regulates the use of water and the main innovations introduced by the laws in force on water resources in Italy, such as the Integrated Water Service (SII), the Optimal Territorial Areas (ATO), the regulation of management and the tariff system of the Integrated Water Service. To date they count on the national territory 92 ATOs, each regulated by an Area Authority and administered by a manager. The top 26 managers, each serving a population of more than 400.000 inhabitants, cover almost 70% of Italians (over 50% is served by the top ten). The Italian water sector is regulated and investments seem to be sufficiently remunerated. However, the trade-off between the remuneration of investments and the tariff system needs to be improved: to increase convenience, the legislation should explain to operators "how" to invest, i.e. which materials, which technologies and which techniques to use, in order to start a circle virtuoso that links higher investments to better returns. The Report describes the Italian water infrastructure and quantifies the levels of water withdrawn, made potable, introduced and supplied in the Italian water network, underlining the levels of dispersion both in the single Region and at a national level.
It is evident that there is enormous scope for efficiency measures. In the civil network, the Report estimates a potential theoretical water saving of 2,7 billion cubic meters per year which is associated with the energy one of over 2 TWh, which can be translated, the latter, into approximately 370 million euros not spent. Interventions aimed at the long-term rehabilitation and replacement of pipes to reduce the level of losses would make it possible to achieve a potential water saving of around 1,2 billion cubic metres, which means an "affordable" potential for associated energy savings slightly less than 1 TWh (about 160 million euros), i.e. 50% less than the theoretical estimate. However, in order for these objectives to be achieved, the joint action of the managers is necessary, who must promote the new incentive systems and try to reason from a multi-year point of view with long-term interventions, and of the policymakers, who must encourage investments and fight unauthorized connections.
The industry. As regards the industrial sector, in 2015 the volume of fresh water consumed was approximately 6,9 billion cubic meters: 5,5 billion in manufacturing and 1,4 billion in energy production. The Report investigated the five sectors (chemical, iron and steel, other non-metallic mineral processing products, production of paper and paper products, textiles) which are most intensive, both in terms of water consumption (covering 55% of total industries) and for the ratio of water consumption to production sold. In each of these sectors, a sub-sector is specifically studied: the production of PET in the chemical industry, the electric iron and steel industry in the iron and steel industry, the production of ceramics in the processing of non-metallic minerals, the production of paper and cardboard in the paper sector and that of wool in textiles, mapping the water-saving techniques used and evaluating the associated water-energy savings.
A "reference" company was defined for each sub-sector and an analysis of water and energy efficiency opportunities was carried out for each of the implementable techniques, assessing their economic convenience and calculating the payback times of possible investments. Significant savings can be made in all of the sub-sectors studied, however it is necessary that the water has a certain direct supply cost (from surface or underground water, or from the water mains), because this significantly influences the decision of companies to invest or not in the techniques analysed: it is no coincidence that many of them are almost never exploited due to the too low cost of the 'raw material water '.
