How good public water is. So why do we still use the bottles?
"Italy is a country that has drinking water of good or excellent quality, but it is also the country that plays with Mexico and Saudi Arabia as the largest consumer of bottled water". This is the theme presented by Claudia Apostolo, RAI journalist of Ambiente Italia, who moderated the public water debate at the Festival. "We use around 90 liters of water per person per year. How can we then convince citizens to prefer, instead, that of the tap? ”.
For Smat "we need to get people into the company and see what it means to work in that reality", while the Water House in Milan has two projects in the pipeline: "Talking to children with an education policy school staff - said Matteo Colle, head of communications Cap Holding of Milan - and water Campers, who will run all the municipalities to public water
In Turin, 50% of citizens drink tap water. It's true?
According to Lorenza Meucci of Smat yes: "We set ourselves for the new millennium to bring safe and good water to the homes, a quality that must be guaranteed. In the Turin municipalities that we serve, the amount that each user consumes is about 190 liters of drinking water, of which only 2 are drunk. Perhaps it is no longer logical to say that we drink bottled water and the rest can be water of lower quality? We would save. Instead we must guarantee everyone quality water at all times ”.
Years ago it was thought that from a certain toret the water of the Pian della Mussa flowed. Obviously it's not true. What, then, is the water we drink?
Meucci: “It is difficult to give a common answer for each city. We serve nearly 300 municipalities and each of these has its own sources. Over 90% comes from well water: it is in itself a guarantee of quality, because the aquifers are deep and safe. Turin, like all large cities, including Florence, but also Paris or London), resort to richer sources: rivers. The Piedmontese capital decided to devote itself to drawing water from the Po in the XNUMXs ”.
What is the meaning of the Expo experience linked to this theme? Was the use of public water promoted during the mega event in Milan?
Matteo Colle: "At Expo, the problem was posed of how to communicate the experience of the Water House, a project that promotes the use of tap water compared to bottled water. On our side we had the great heat that hit the city during the summer, so visitors needed to drink a lot. We have made available to them many free water houses ”.
And what is Smat's experience with respect to water houses?
"We will install the 140esima: only in Turin we have 12, 3 in other larger municipalities in the province. It is much appreciated by citizens, because it is a privileged communication tool that has allowed them to speak better with them. In this way we overcome the distrust, the prejudices and the bad information that have pervaded our knowledge. To give an example: in some schools bottled water has been replaced, exceeding the 95% presence of use in institutions ”.
One of Lega Ambiente's campaigns was called "imbrocchiamola". Large quantities of plastic bottles are eliminated.
Giorgio Zampetti of Legambiente replies: “The goal was to involve the businesses, putting a sticker on the shop windows that indicated that tap water was being served. In other countries it is normal, but here it is an anomaly: most traders used excuses related to legal and health reasons. We decided to do the campaign anyway, I added some dossiers. The data were highlighted: how many plastic bottles were not recycled, the oil consumed, the CO emissions dispersed in the air. Not to mention the prices: we pay a lot for the bottles, but those who bottle pay very little, around 1 euros per thousand liters. Communication therefore matters a lot. Furthermore, if the citizen uses tap water, he expects it to be clean, thus becoming a sentinel of water and resources. It is an important step but we also need right information ".
di Sara Iacomussi e Monica Merola (Futura)
