Francesco Vincenzi (Anbi) is the new president of the EUWMA assembly

"Among the objectives is to overcome the attempt at conflict with agriculture"

ROME –  It was held today, in the Roman headquarters of ANBI (National Association of Land and Irrigation Water Management and Protection Consortia), the assembly EUWMA (European Union of Water Management Associations) which the public, local and regional water management organizations of ten European Union member states have joined:Belgium, Italy, Hungary, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Romania and the Netherlands.

On this occasion, the president of ANBI, Francesco Vincenzi, assumed the rotating European presidency.A presidency entrusted in the past year to Belgium with Sam Coulier:the Belgian intervened explaining how the theme of their presidency concerned the 'salinisation' of water, a very widespread problem not only in their territory.

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE NEW ITALIAN PRESIDENCY OF EUWMA

Vincenzi explained during the meeting the priority objectives of the new Italian EUWMA presidency, which will last one year as established by the rotation.“Land management and environmental protection today are often put in opposition - explained President Vincenzi - We talk about anthropization versus renaturalization yet the matter is decidedly complex."

To give an example:“30 percent of Italy's lowland territories exist only because there are over 800 pumps that keep them dry:they are lands below sea level.There are approximately 600 water pumps in the north-east. If their work were suspended, the coast from Ravenna to Trieste would disappear.The Italian tourist site is an artificial site and so is, for example, a good part of the Po Valley."

The question that Italy places at the center of this presidency is therefore: “Do we need a leap backwards or a great leap forward?”.A cultural challenge to be faced with the 9 countries involved which focuses attention on:thenfrastructures that allow the management of water scarcity and drought in irrigation/water reuse schemes;water and energy infrastructure such as REC solar panels suspended from cables above canals.

“With these solar panels – they explain at the headquarters ANBI– we are saving 73 million liters of water that is channeled to local farms, generating 8.4 million KW of energy per year since 2017."

“Water scarcity has repercussions on food production - continues Vincenzi - food scarcity is therefore increasing inflation by around 5 points.This problem concerns the lack of infrastructure for which citizens are paying the consequences.Prevention costs 7 times less than emergency.However, we know that the speed of financing is very different from the speed of climate change.An emergency that is affecting the whole of Europe and the whole world."