The water treatment market - Italy

The water treatment is a process by which contaminants are removed from water of urban and industrial origin. This activity is done because many human activities produce pollutant discharges and so they must be cleaned up before they can be released back into the environment. The waters that are treated by sewage treatment plants are: -Urban wastewater: comes from domestic activity and is rich in urea, fat, protein and cellulose. -Industrial wastewater: often contains toxic substances that are very harmful to the environment. There are usually two lines in a wastewater treatment plant: -The "water line" in which liquid substances coming from sewers are treated. -The "sludge line" where sludge is processed during the sedimentation stages provided in the water line. As for the global market, this in the year 2021 reached a value of $164.24 billion and is estimated to be worth $211 billion in 2025.

In Italy, as reported by ISTAT data, there were 17,897 water treatment plants in operation in 2018. The northern part of Italy has more plants especially the regions of Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Veneto. From a regulatory point of view in Italy, the EU Directive 91/271/EEC concerning urban wastewater treatment has been implemented through Legislative Decree No. 152 of May 11, 1999, in which a comprehensive program on the protection of water from pollution is defined. The goal of this program is to be able to reuse as much water as possible in both the domestic and industrial fields. The main activities that are suggested for reuse are irrigation, street washing, for fire-fighting systems, and for thermal cycle washing at the industrial level.