Freshwater - National Responses (Italy)

Highly settled areas constitute a critical component in the growing demand for  water, as well as the equally voluminous flows of waste which need to be purified. In certain cases, the systems of collection and purification are inadequate and not suitable for reducing the polluting content of the volumes of sewage and industrial waste water. A further difficulty is the precise monitoring of industrial discharges .

On the national level, the key planning instrument for formulating strategies is the Water Defence Plan (PTA). This contains the measures needed to maintain and improve the both quality and quantity.

The measures undertaken by the regions in the Water Defence Plan consist primarily of works meant to maintain and upgrade the systems for collecting and purifying waste water.

In 2005, the national level of compliance with purification requirements was 80 % for sensitive areas and 77 % for normal areas. Data for 2006 are available for 9 regions, within which compliance with the Directive is approximately 76 %.

Compliance of collecting systems has been calculated on the basis of the level of territorial coverage. The average national level of compliance in 2005 was equal to 82 % in sensitive areas and 78 % in normal areas.

For a detailed treatment of topics addressed above, see key topics at

http://annuario.apat.it/capitoli/Ver_6/en/Water%20quality.pdf

Authors:

Ardiana Donati, Giovanni Finocchiaro(ISPRA)

References

ISPRA, Key Topics –Italian Environmental Data Yearbook 2008. Roma 2009.

ISPRA, Annuario dei dati ambientali 2008. Roma 2009.

http://annuario.apat.it/

ANPA/CTN_AIM, Manuale di indici e indicatori per le acque, CTN_AIM MAN 01_01, 2001.

ANPA/CTN_AIM, Manuale di elaborazione indicatori e indici, AIM_T_MAN_99_01, Firenze 1999.