Upon the occasion of the 2018 World Water Day, established by the United Nations and celebrated on March 22, Istat provides a summary of the main statistics on water resources.
In 2017, due to the “water crisis”, in the four main Italian river basins (Po, Adige, Arno and Tiber) annual average flows recorded a reduction of 39.6% compared to the long term annual average 1981-2010.
The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) indicates, for the four main river basins, that the months of greatest rainfall deficit were concentrated in the second half of the 2017, characterized by an “extremely dry” state, with one exception in December in the Tiber basin, which was “very dry”.
In 2017, one family in ten (10.1%) complained about irregularities in the water supply service in their dwellings and one family in three (29.1%) did not trust drinking tap water.
In 2016, the average monthly household expenditure for the purchase of mineral water amounted to 10.75 euros, recording an increase for the second consecutive year (+4.7% compared to 2015). At the same time, the average monthly expenditure for water supply connected to the dwelling was slightly higher and equal to 13.59 euros, 1.5% more than in 2015.
In 2015 the total volume of water abstracted for drinkable use by 1,877 water management companies, operating on the Italian territory, amounted to 9.49 billion cubic meters. More than seven billion cubic meters, 76.3% of the total, was measured using suitable meters, while the remaining 23.7% was estimated by the companies.
Among the 28 countries of the European Union, Italy presented the largest annual water withdrawal for public water supply per capita: 156 cubic meters per inhabitant.