the water treatment market | Italy

1.1 Definition and scope of study

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 polluting discharges and therefore need to be cleaned up before they can be released back into the environment. The waters that are treated by sewage treatment plants are:

- Urban waste water: comes from domestic activities and is rich in urea, fat, protein and cellulose.

- Industrial waste water: often contains toxic substances that are very harmful to the environment. 

There are usually two lines in a wastewater treatment plant:

- The "water line" where the liquid substances coming from the sewers are treated. 

- The "sludge line" where the sludge is processed during the sedimentation phases foreseen in the water line.

As far as the global market is concerned, in the year 2021 it reached a value of 283.48 billion dollars and is estimated to be worth 465.23 billion dollars in 2028 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.3%. 

In Italy, as reported by ISTAT data, there were 17,897 water treatment plants in operation in 2018. The northern part of Italy has the largest number of 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 on urban waste water treatment was implemented by legislative decree no. 152 of 11 May 1999, which defines a comprehensive programme to protect water from pollution. The objective of this programme is to reuse as much water as possible in both the domestic and industrial sectors. The main activities that are suggested for reuse are irrigation, street washing, fire-fighting systems and industrial thermal cycle washing.