Upon occasion of the 2015 World Water Day, established by United Nations and celebrated every March 22 all over the world, Istat provides a summary of the main statistics on water resources.
Istat calculates for the first time hydrological indicators (precipitation, evapotraspiration, total outflow, recharge into the aquifers), as part of the “Meteo-climatic and hydrological indicators” project, necessary for a quantitative, spatial and temporal assessment of natural water resources. These indicators refer to each year of the period 2001-2010 and to the average for the period 1971-2000. The data collected were processed at the river basin level.
The average precipitation occurred in the decade 2001-2010 corresponds to a volume of water equal to 245,457 millions of cubic meters (+1.8% compared to the average for the period 1971-2000), almost in line with the average value for 1971-2000. The most droughty year was 2001 with 190,839 millions of cubic meters (20.8% less than the reference period average value), on the contrary 2010 was the wettest year with 306,883 millions of cubic meters (+27.3%).
In 2012 the municipalities served by a drinking water supply network were 8,067. Those totally devoid of a drinking water supply network were 25 (corresponding to 114,561 inhabitants, 0.2% of the Italian population). An urban wastewater treatment was active in 7,550 municipalities, by working plants fully or partially treating wastewater. Municipalities without wastewater treatment services were 542, covering 2.3 millions of resident population (3.8% of the total population).
In 2012, the management of urban water services was entrusted to 3,161 companies in Italy, 82.8% of which are municipalities. The number of operators decreased by 190 units compared to 2008, due to the overall concentration of management activities observed since 1999, that is, the year when the Italian reform of the water services management started. The national water abstraction for drinkable use amounted to 9.5 billions of cubic meters.
For information
Socio-demographic and environmental statistics directorate
Stefano Tersigni
ph. +39 06 4673.4348
tersigni@istat.it