ROME (ITALPRESS) – About 4 billion people, half the world’s population, face severe water scarcity for at least part of the year, 3.5 billion lack access to sanitation and 2.2 billion to safely managed drinking water.
This is the dramatic global situation photographed in the 2022 edition of the UN-WWDR. Today, in the International Year dedicated by the United Nations to glacier conservation, the spotlight is on the very mountains and glaciers, often referred to as the “water towers” of the world, that are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the climate crisis and unsustainable human activities, endangering the water resources on which billions of people and countless ecosystems depend.
There are 33 million km2 of the land surface occupied by mountains and home to more than 1.1 billion people, while another 2 billion live downstream and depend on natural water supplies provided by melting glaciers. Forests cover about 40 percent of mountain areas and perform protective functions against natural disasters by stabilizing steeper slopes, regulating flows to aquifers, reducing surface runoff and soil erosion, and mitigating the risk of landslides and floods.
This is what emerges, in a nutshell, from the United Nations World Water Resources Development Report 2025 with a focus on “Mountains and Glaciers: towers of water,” published by UNESCO on behalf of UN Water, whose production is coordinated by UNESCO World Water Assessment Program (WWAP) and whose official translation into Italian is edited by Fondazione UniVerde with the support of UNESCO WWAP in collaboration with Acquedotto Pugliese, G.M.T., E.P.M, CiviSmart and AVR Associazione italiana produttori Valvole e Rubinetti federata Anima Confindustria presented this morning at Palazzo Rospigliosi on the occasion of the conference “Water and Agriculture: policies and tools for innovation and efficiency,” promoted by Fondazione UniVerde and Coldiretti, under the patronage of UNESCO WWAP, with Almaviva as main partner, with the media partnership of Rai Radio 1 and event partner Acea, broadcast live streamed on Radio Radicale.
At the event, as is traditional, the Report “Italians and Agriculture” was presented, now in its 15th edition, with a focus on Water, Agriculture and the Climate Crisis, produced by the UniVerde Foundation and Noto Sondaggi in collaboration with Coldiretti, ANBI and Campagna Amica Foundation. This latest report shows that Italians are particularly concerned about flood risk and drought risk considering (85 percent) the effects of climate change an urgent problem that must be addressed also to protect farmers, custodians of the land and our food security.
To counteract the effects on agriculture of long drought periods, which are becoming increasingly frequent, 77 percent believe it is necessary to build new reservoirs but favor water-saving and water-efficiency measures, along with the development of specific adaptation plans for the agricultural sector and investments in technological innovation, not excluding the possibility of granting subsidies to farmers.
The proposal to establish water-saving incentive mechanisms such as blue certificates, including in agriculture, is supported by 69% of Italians, with high percentages of appreciation in the South (76%). As many as 81% support the idea of making use of purified wastewater for irrigation purposes (item up by 9%), especially to ensure water savings, while, for 66%, there is a need to invest in technologies for irrigation monitoring and management.
The meeting was opened by the greeting of Vincenzo Gesmundo (Coldiretti General Secretary): “Five years ago we launched the proposal for a plan of reservoirs with pumping systems to generate electricity, with the aim of addressing a problem, that of the lack of water resources, which is unfortunately becoming a structural phenomenon, for agriculture but also for citizens, with many municipalities in inland areas and in the Central South where the presence of tanker trucks to supply drinking water is now a habit. It is time to understand that we can no longer just chase emergencies. We need to adopt a strategy that, in addition to building new reservoirs, includes maintenance of waterways and more efficient distribution of water resources. Only in this way will we be able to meet the challenges of climate with respect to phenomena that have cost Italian agriculture 20 billion euros in the last three years.”
“Dramatic floods, prolonged droughts and pollution of fresh water call attention to the urgency of implementing initiatives for a smarter and more sustainable use of the water resource,” said Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio (President of the UniVerde Foundation and promoter of the #NoFakeFood campaign against agro-piracy and in defense of Made in Italy). A path that involves institutions, businesses, trade organizations and all productive sectors. The UN-WWDR 2025 warns of the present and future impacts of these phenomena: the protection of mountain waters is essential to ensure food and renewable energy security for billions of people. In the opinion of Italians, as the “Italians and Agriculture” Report also highlights, institutions and local governments should help facilitate the adoption of systems that encourage water efficiency in agriculture. We are talking about enabling technological infrastructure, bureaucratic simplification and rewarding factors. The proposal relaunched to the government is to establish water-saving incentive mechanisms, such as blue certificates, in order to promote innovation and application of the best technical water efficiency solutions for supply and agricultural and industrial uses.”
For Fulvio Conti (Director Customer Project Management, Almaviva), “it becomes strategic to integrate the irrigation supply chain in the digitization process that has invested the Integrated Water System. The Almaviva Group is certainly today the most competent player that can face this challenge thanks to its knowledge of agricultural data, engineering/hydraulic expertise and plurality of technologies that can be applied. Our platform allows integrated management, with a single point of access to all relevant information for network and needs management, and empowers Consortia to make informed decisions that accompany them in adopting sustainable agricultural practices.”
Tommaso Foti (Minister for European Affairs, the NRDP and Cohesion Policies) in his address said, “The National Recovery and Resilience Plan represents an extraordinary opportunity for our nation also in the context of the green revolution and ecological transition, to which Mission 2 of the NRDP is dedicated. Overall, the investment envelope dedicated to interventions to strengthen and resilient networks and combat water dispersion amounts to 5.4 billion euros, spread over four measures: security of water supply; improved wastewater management; irrigation use of the water resource; and implementation of third- and fourth-level metering, with the aim of measuring the volume of water used and limiting waste and unauthorized use. These investments not only improve water management but also contribute to making our agriculture on the one hand sustainable and on the other resilient in the face of climate change. Further investments, then, are foreseen under the Programs financed by the European Structural Funds, which contribute 1.7 billion to the water sector, in addition to 1.4 billion provided by the Development and Cohesion Fund programming, whose instruments were recently reorganized in the Cohesion Agreements. The sustainable management of water resources and water quality, including the preservation of existing water infrastructure, is therefore now a central theme of investment policies and a leading objective for the Meloni government.”
The official translation of the UN-WWDR2025, supported by virtuous partners, and the result of the collaboration between the UniVerde Foundation and UNESCO WWAP, has been renewed now since 2018 and has greatly contributed to the dissemination of more information and a higher degree of awareness around the issue of water at all levels, allowing Italy to rise towards the top positions in the world in terms of the number of downloads of the Document and to stimulate the necessary interventions of institutions and businesses, in favor of the protection of water resources and for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6 of Agenda 2030: “Ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.”
However, the Report states, “data shortages and gaps in monitoring activities continue to hinder an accurate assessment of the other goals of Goal 6, for example with reference to water resource management, water quality, water ecosystems and an environment conducive to them.”
Miguel De França Doria (UNESCO WWAP Director – World Water Assessment Program) explained that the Report “naturally highlights the urgency of improving water governance in mountain environments, including through integrated river basin management, and the need also to increase capacity, increase innovations, and increase cooperation at all levels to achieve water security,” while also highlighting the role of investment and financing in this area.
The mountain cryosphere constitutes one of the components of the Earth system most sensitive to climate change. Most of the world’s glaciers are melting at an increasing rate, increasing the melting of permafrost and the risk of natural disasters, such as debris flows, avalanches, and flooding from collapsing dams and glacial lakes.
Water flows from mountains will become increasingly unpredictable, uncertain, and variable. Changes in the timing and volumes of maximum and minimum flows, as well as erosion and sediment loads, will affect downstream water resources in terms of quantity, regularity, and quality. UNWWDR2025 therefore draws attention to the essential services and benefits that mountain waters, and alpine glaciers, provide to communities, economies, and the environment.
Focusing on the technical solutions and policies needed to improve water management in the mountains, this year’s Report addresses key issues such as water supply and sanitation, climate change mitigation and adaptation, food and energy security, industry, disaster risk reduction, and ecosystem protection.
-Photo press office UniVerde Foundation-.
(ITALPRESS).
