The first meeting of the water crisis steering committee that was established by Decree Law no. 39/2023 (the so-called ‘Drought Decree Law’), approved on 14 April this year, was held at Palazzo Chigi today. The meeting, chaired by Vice-President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Infrastructure Matteo Salvini, was attended, among others, by Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida, Minister for Regional Affairs and Autonomies Roberto Calderoli, Undersecretary of State to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers Alessandro Morelli, Deputy Minister of the Environment Vannia Gava, Undersecretary of State to the Ministry of Economy and Finance Lucia Albano and head of the legislative office of the Ministry for European Affairs, Southern Italy, Cohesion Policy and the NRRP Mario Capolupo. The meeting was also attended by Nicola Dell’Acqua, whom the Council of Ministers yesterday appointed National special commissioner for the adoption of urgent measures related to water shortages, as per the proposal by President Giorgia Meloni.
During the meeting, it was decided to prioritise measures that can help solve the most urgent problems, even if these may not be in an advanced stage of planning. As requested by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, a review of requests from local areas was therefore launched. In this regard, initial measures have already been identified in five regions (Lombardy; Piedmont; Veneto; Emilia-Romagna; Lazio) for a total investment of EUR 102,030,000, made available by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.
Working in synergy with Special commissioner Nicola Dell’Acqua, the steering committee’s objectives include a streamlining of administrative procedures in order to provide local areas with concrete and urgent responses. Furthermore, as provided for by the ‘Drought Decree Law’, the steering committee has also prioritised seawater desalination projects, as a transition tool to deal with emergency phases. An example of one such project is the proposal put forward a few months ago by the Mayor of Genoa, Marco Bucci, which involves combining water from purification plants with an equal quantity of seawater, and then transporting the desalinated water to the north of Italy via an existing and unused pipeline at the Genoa port oil terminal.
The water crisis steering committee also began a review of available resources in the ministries involved that are allocated, under current legislation, to measures for the water industry, in order to plan further short-term action. During the meeting, it was also decided to establish interministerial technical working groups dedicated to the various issues related to the water crisis, whose task will be to support the steering committee’s work.