Drought and reuse of waste water, Compagnone: “In Sicily we could recover 420 thousand cubic meters of water every year” – BlogSicilia

The Regional Department of Energy and Public Utilities has issued a decree regulating the reuse of waste water in Sicily, presented during an event organized by Dusmet and the Legislative Juridical Observatory of the Sicilian Episcopal Conference

Last April 10, the seminar on the management of waste and water services in Sicily, between regeneration and sustainability, was held at the Engineering department of the University of Palermo. The event was organized by the Dusmet Foundation and the Legislative Juridical Observatory of the Sicilian Episcopal Conference, with the organizational secretariat of the Order of Engineers of the Province of Palermo and the collaboration of Confservizi, Anea, Laboratorio Utilities Enti Locali, Osservatorio Gocce d’ Water and the patronage of the Ars and the Sicilian Region, SRR4 CL Sud, Impianti SRR ATO Sud, UniCT and UniPA

Among the participants were the general secretary of the Dusmet Foundation, lawyer Michele Pivetti Gagliardi, the director of the Engineering Department of the University of Palermo, professor Antonio Valenza, the president of the SRR Ato 4 sud, doctor Vincenzo Marino, the sole director of AMAP SpA , Alessandro Di Martino, the president of the Palermo Order of Engineers, professor Vincenzo Di Dio and the Bishop Emeritus of Monreale, His Eminence Michele Pennisi, the director of the ARERA Environment Division, doctor Lorenzo Bardelli, the honorable Marisa Abbondazieri, president of ANEA and the professor Cristiano Bevilacqua of the Legal Observatory of the Sicilian Episcopal Conference.

Of particular interest was the intervention of the former senator and regional deputy Giuseppe Compagnone, in his capacity as consultant to the Regional Department of Energy and Public Utilities.

“The reuse of purified wastewater represents a solution to deal with particularly dry periods like the one we are going through – said Compagnone. – Obviously we are talking about reuse in the fields of agriculture, industrial settlements, street cleaning activities and irrigation of public green areas paid for by the Municipalities. Today – continues Compagnone – we need to apply the same principles of the circular economy to water that are applied to renewable energy and the reuse of waste. We are talking about an enormous potential, 9 billion cubic meters of water every year, of which only 5% is exploited in Italy. It is clear that to stimulate the reuse of waste water it is necessary to encourage the meeting between supply and demand, incentivize entrepreneurs and farmers and plan infrastructure. In Sicily we are working concretely, the Regional Department of Energy and Public Utilities has issued councilor’s decree no. 6 of 6 February 2024 which regulates the reuse of waste water in Sicily, an intervention that puts Sicily in line with the most recent European Community forecasts on waste water. The initiative is the result of a year of joint work with the Sicilian Universities, the Territorial Water Assemblies, the water service managers, the basin authorities, the ARPA and the Asp.”

“The Utilitatis foundation and Enea have estimated what percentage of the water leaving the purifiers would cover if it were destined for agriculture – continues Giuseppe Compagnone. – In Sicily alone, for example, we are talking about a treated water potential of over 420 thousand cubic meters per year. A quantity capable of covering 61% of regional agricultural needs if we consider plants with more than 2 thousand equivalent inhabitants. It is clear that this data could be a turning point for long-term solutions against drought.”

“At the moment the drought issue is a central issue for Sicily, in particular for western Sicily – says professor Rosario Mazzola, president of the Utilitatis Foundation. – We must deal with climate change and its impacts on the territory, not only in terms of drought but also in terms of very intense rainfall, which is also capable of causing significant damage. There is no doubt that the reuse of wastewater is a fundamental issue to improve water supplies. Today it is possible to purify water by creating real green factories capable of turning even water waste into a resource. As for water purification, however, it must be said that today Sicily is not in a good place. We have many systems that are not up to standard and the water networks are often damaged and malfunctioning. It is no coincidence that most of the interventions envisaged by the national commissioner structure for water purification are planned in Sicily.

“If the drought becomes structural, and the signs are unfortunately all there, this change must make us think that we need to change perspective and also start thinking, for example, about building new types of desalination plants to increase the availability of water resources which, differences in purified wastewater, are suitable for human use. To be honest, I have never been in favor of watermakers outright – says Mazzola – because the priority is and remains the redevelopment of water networks which today lose enormous quantities of water. However, faced with a perspective like the current one, even watermakers can be evaluated positively.”