Sardinia: €50 million to combat water loss, 15 municipalities affected

Fifty million euros. This is the amount allocated by the Regional Council, upon the proposal of President Alessandra Todde, to combat water leakage in several municipalities on the island, where the greatest problems are currently being experienced. The interventions will be implemented with resources from the 2021-2027 Development and Cohesion Fund (FSC).

"With this measure we are concretely addressing one of the most serious structural emergencies on our island.", he claims President Todde“We can no longer allow the continued waste of a precious resource like water,” he added. especially at a time when climate change is putting our ecosystems at risk and affecting our daily lives".

Once the interventions have been carried out, it is estimated that the total annual volume potentially recoverable will be equal to approximately 6,7 million cubic metres of water., but the exact quantification of the water savings will be possible once the new infrastructure is operational. To give an idea, this would mean a water saving that would ideally allow the entire Medau Zirimilis reservoir, in the Alto Cixerri area, to be filled, or approximately 25% of the authorized volume of the Maccheronis dam, in Posada.

"Sardinia - highlights the President - It is one of the Italian regions with the highest water losses from drinking water distribution pipes, as a percentage of the volumes fed into the network. Added to this is the drought we are currently experiencing, one of the most severe ever recorded. Today we are adopting a strategic measure to combat waste, strengthen the efficiency of the regional water service, and ensure the availability of resources in the most vulnerable areas.".

The beneficiary of the funding will be the Government Body of the Sardinia Area (Egas) for the implementation, through the manager of the Integrated Water Service Abbanoa, of interventions rehabilitation of water networks in 15 municipalities in the regional territory.

In detail, The municipalities receiving the resources are: the municipality of Sassari, which will receive 6.900.000 euros, divided into two tranches of 3.700.000 and 3.200.000 euros; the municipality of Alghero (5.700.000 euros); the municipality of Oristano (4.800.000 euros); the municipality of Quartu Sant'Elena (2.500.000 euros); the municipality of Nuoro (4.700.000 euros); the municipalities of Ittiri, Ploaghe, Buddusò, Dorgali and Posada, which will receive a total of 13.000.000 euros (plus 680.000 euros from the FSC 2014-2020 funds) which will be distributed according to the size of the projects and in relation to the needs already developed by the manager Abbanoa, as will happen for the municipalities of San Gavino Monreale, Sanluri, Villasor, Sant'Antioco and Villaputzu, where a total of 12.400.000 euros will arrive (plus 673.950 euros of FSC 2014-2020 funds).

The selection of municipalities and their water networks to be affected was the subject of a joint evaluation conducted by the Regional Agency of the Hydrographic District of Sardinia (ADIS), EGAS, and Abbanoa. One of the factors taken into consideration to identify the major critical issues and thus draw up a priority order was the water balance for 2023 and 2024. The most critical situations were identified by evaluating the volume of total water losses in the water distribution phase, calculated as the difference between the volumes introduced into the network and the volumes actually supplied, thus classifying the municipal networks in terms of annual volumes lost, both in absolute value and percentage.

A further criterion for identifying priorities, with the aim of best distributing the available financial resources, was to identify the municipal networks already receiving specific FSC 2014-2020 or PNRR funding, currently underway, and to plan further interventions only in the municipalities experiencing the greatest difficulties or in particularly deficient situations.