White Paper value of water for Italy 2021

Italy is a country at risk when it comes to water and sustainable development.

Italy is a heavily draining country with the aggravating circumstance of almost always uncontrolled waste. With 153 m3 per capita per year, Italy is the 2nd country in the European Union for withdrawals of drinking water (twice the European average). Furthermore, with 200 liters per capita consumed per year, it is the 1st country in the world for consumption of bottled mineral water (compared to a European average of 118 liters), despite the quality of the water that comes out of our taps best in Europe.

From a national security point of view, water constitutes a real vulnerability: 21% of the national territory is in fact currently at risk of desertification with increasingly frequent drought events affecting the country's main water sources.

The 2021 White Paper emphasizes that Italy is a country with a high climate vulnerability, understood as the poor ability to adapt to events related to climate change.

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