On 12 February, in Florence, at the headquarters of the Autorità Idrica Toscana (AIT), an international meeting was held between la Fondazione Toscana Sostenibile (FTS) for Italy, the Associacion Cultural CLASH for Spain, and Területfejlesztők a Vidékért Egyesület for Hungary. This was the final act of a four-month awareness campaign entitled “Valuig Water from different perspectives – the role of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)”
The purpose of the meeting was to involve citizens, experts, various stakeholders and institutions to underline the importance of water as a resource, and to agree on a resilient and effective water strategy, based on three principles:
- Building a smart water economy;
- Clean, reliable and sanitised water for all uses;
- Restoring and protecting the water cycle.
To preserve water effectively, some indications may be useful in a circular process: innovation, intended use and industrial use; finance and infrastructure; governance and implementation; security and preparedness.
Alessandro Mazzei, General Manager of the Autorità Idrica Toscana (AIT), presented the event and said a few words to underline the importance of water as a resource and as the subject of a round table at local, regional, national and European level. Also because a resilient water management system is beneficial for everyone, even for institutional operators such as Nuove Acque (in the Arezzo and Siena area), who were connected remotely.
After an initial introduction to the topic, two different round tables were promoted in each of the participating countries, in order to discuss the opportunities to be exploited and the inefficiencies to be overcome in order to develop and achieve a better water management system.
Every suggestion and result from the three international groups (from Italy, from Spain, and from Hungary) was freely expressed and take into consideration during the final report: the result is a Position Paer, if confirmed by each part involved in the project, can be used as a formal proposal to be send to European Union int the future.
