Water, 15.5 billion in investments activated

With regard to the water service, investments of € 15.5 billion were made and approximately 98% of planned investments were made. This is what emerges from the Annual Report of Arera, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment, with 2020 data for electricity, gas, water, waste. During the year 2020, Arera notes, the overall legislative and regulatory framework in which the Authority set up its measures was deeply affected by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this context, the approval of the tariff proposals for the four-year period 2020-2023 concern 84 operators who serve 36,817,534 inhabitants. Compared to the previous year, the average change in the fees applied to users was 1.97%. Therefore, substantial stability of user tariffs is confirmed, even in the presence of the process of improving the quality of the integrated water service. With reference to the third regulatory period, the programs of interventions transmitted to the Authority lead to quantify, for the four-year period 2020-2023, an investment expenditure to be financed through tariffs, in per capita terms, equal to 224 euros per inhabitant at national level, with higher values ​​in the Center, equal to 286 euros per inhabitant. Also considering the forecasts regarding the availability of public funding for the construction of water infrastructures, the investments planned for the four-year period 2020-2023 are, in per capita terms, equal to 261 euros per inhabitant at national level, with the highest value, differently from what was represented in previous editions, in the Center area (322 euros per inhabitant). approximately € 3.9 billion in each annuity of the four-year period). In particular, from the analysis of the data, it appears that in the face of the progressive improvement of the indicators required by the regulation of technical quality, the competent subjects have planned for the period 2020-2021 investments that are approximately 13% higher than those planned for the two-year period. previous one. The checks carried out showed general improvements in the ability to carry out planned investments. The national average realization rate for 2018 was 97.9% and for 2019 97.8%.