August 12, 2022 - Rationing in homes, agricultural collapsing, troubled hydroelectric power plants, rivers running dry: the water crisis is entering the Italian homes with disruptive effects. The numbers say there are 270,000 farms in the Italian regions affected by the state of emergency, while municipalities across Italy are increasing in number to impose water rationing on private individuals. 

It is imperative to act on the inefficiency of aqueducts, as Istat has certified that more than one-third of the water put into the distribution network is lost. But the effects of climate change also force other choices under the banner of innovation, such as the construction of reservoirs to collect rainwater and also desalinators, an increasingly popular solution in the world where the number of people living in regions with severe water shortages will increase by 1 billion, by 2030, reaching 3.9 billion out of a projected world population of 8.1 billion. In fact, the United Nations predicts that more than 14 percent of the world's population will face water access problems by 2025. Millions of people worldwide, according to the International Desalination Association (IDA).

The Spanish example and the proposed intervention in Italy 

For Webuild, of which Fisia Impianti, which specializes precisely in water treatment, is a part, the answer to Italy's water crisis lies precisely in the construction of desalinators. In Italy, desalinated water covers 4 percent of the total compared to 56 percent in Spain (which has 765 plants, and if all this water were used for human consumption it could supply nearly 34 million people) and 26 percent in Australia.  

The issue is the focus of the "Acqua per la Vita" project (Water for Life Project), with solutions to be implemented in the short term to structurally address the problem. With the Webuild project, 30 percent of the population would no longer have a water emergency. It is a project that could yield initial results within two years and then aim for a total of 16 to 18 medium power desalination plants. The group is ready to deploy its expertise, which has led, for example, to a project to quench the thirst of Las Vegas with a hydraulic tunnel that provides drinking water for nearly 2 million residents, the Intake 3 project in Lake Mead, while with Fisia, which is a leader in the Middle East, it has already built water treatment and desalination plants for the needs of 20 million people.

Desalinators in the world: from the Gulf to Australia, from California to Israel 

Today, only 1 percent of the world's population is totally dependent on water from desalination processes for domestic use, but since the first plant started in 1965 in California, there are now already more than 20 thousand desalinators providing drinking water to more than 300 million people. The highest concentration of plants is found in the Gulf countries. Saudi Arabia, for example, produces one-fifth of the world's sea-extracted drinking water, being able to rely on low energy costs to operate the plants. The new plant in the futuristic NEOM smart city will cover 30 percent of the total water demand. The Fisia-built plant located in the Shoaiba area, on the country's west coast, produces drinking water for more than one million residents of the cities of Mecca, Jeddah and Taif. 

But, with regard to Italy, perhaps more interesting is the experience of Australia, which decided to invest in desalinators precisely after facing the worst drought in living memory (known as the Millennium Drought) between 1997 and 2010. Australia is expected to see up to 10 percent less rainfall in the south of the country by 2030 and 20 percent by 2050. The Australian government has therefore planned $15 billion investment in drinking water recycling and seawater desalination, with the construction of six major seawater desalination plants in all five mainland state capitals and four drinking water recycling plants in Brisbane.  

Significant investments have also been made in other highly developed areas of the world: in the San Diego area of the United States, the largest desalination plant in North America has been built, and today about 10 percent of the water used by the area's 3.1 million residents comes from this plant, while throughout California there are ten plants and 11 more have been proposed. Finally, desalination plays a crucial role for Israel where more than half of the water consumed comes from the five plants in operation (and five more are under study).