Tap water in Italy is safe to drink. But is the quality really good? A report by the National Centre for Water Safety, part of the Italian Higher Institute of Health (ISS), has taken a close look at the quality of the water that reaches Italians. The verdict is clear: Italian tap water is rated ‘excellent’. According to the recently published report, 99.1% of Italian tap water complies with microbiological and chemical health parameters. In 98.4% of cases, it also meets quality indicators that can affect taste, smell or colour.
The report examines the results of more than 2.5 million chemical, physico-chemical and microbiological analyses carried out in 18 regions and autonomous provinces of the peninsula between 2020 and 2022. All regions have a compliance rate of more than 95%. This time there is no real difference between the north and south of the country, although the best data are recorded in Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont and Veneto. As for the samples that do not meet the standards, the report explains that these are “episodic and circumstantial” traces at the local level and that the health of citizens is still guaranteed.
Not only is Italian tap water perfectly drinkable, it is also the fifth best in Europe in terms of overall quality, after Austria, Sweden and Ireland. Italy even represents a model, as Andrea Piccioli, Director General of ISS, pointed out when the report was published:
‘Italy played an important role in asking the European Union to draw up even stricter legislation on the quality and safety of drinking water.
But: Tap water is shunned by Italians, Europe’s biggest consumers of bottled water. People are clearly reluctant to drink tap water. And don’t ask for a carafe of water in a bar or restaurant. According to the National Statistics Institute (Istat), a third of Italians say they do not trust the quality of tap water. According to a study by CSA Research, only 29.2% of Italians drink tap water every day. What is more, almost half of them (43.3%) only drink bottled water. European statistics bear this out: every Italian consumes an average of 208 litres of bottled water, despite the hunt to reduce plastic waste. This makes Italy the biggest consumer of bottled water in Europe, ahead of Germany and Portugal, and the second biggest in the world after Mexico.
The publication of the report is the first step in the creation of a ‘water registry’, which will provide the public with up-to-date data on the characteristics of the drinking water in their area. ISS has also created a dedicated website (in Italian) where all useful information about water is published, starting with a description of its ‘journey’ from the point where it is extracted to the tap in the home. There is also a section dedicated to dispelling the most common misconceptions about drinking water.
For example: ‘To make tap water safe, you need to install a treatment system at home’. This is a false statement, as the water distributed in Italy does not require any further treatment to make it safe to drink or to avoid health risks. The only purpose of the water treatment devices on the market is to make it taste better (and to make money).
But there are also attempts to do better. The city of Agropolis declared itself “plastic free” and installed water distributors in the school. The declared goal is to eliminate plastic bottles forever
Or in Rome, where a maxi waste bin appears on Via del Corso to reflect on water consumption (see photo above). The 6,000-litre bin, placed in Largo dei Lombardi next to two normal-sized plastic and glass bins, is the result of the “Water in our hands” project, which aims to raise awareness among Romans about waste. This special container could hold more than 6,000 litres of water, which is equivalent to the consumption of an average Italian family of four in a single week.
While traditional waste is visible, water consumption is always invisible, hidden in the pipes, making it difficult to manage consciously. Hence the idea of making it visible, to raise awareness and promote a more sustainable use of this precious resource at all times of the year, not just in the summer when public attention is at its peak. According to a recent survey carried out by the YouGov research institute, only 35% of Italians believe that per capita water consumption in Italy is higher than the European average, even though the reality is that Italians consume more than 220 litres per day, compared with 123 litres for their European counterparts.
Sources:
- Le Petit Journal (Edition Milan) (in French)
- Voce di strada (in Italian)
- Corriere della Sera (in Italian)
