First national conference on water districts in Italy

Gruppo 183 NGO has organised the first national conference on the creation of water districts in Italy, in implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive. The conference to take place on November 7, 2006 in Rome, will focus on a number of issues: definition and competences of water districts, public participation, relationship between national and regional administrations. The transposition of the Water Framework Directive in the Italian legislation was formally approved with a government decree (152/2006) published on the Official Journal on April 14, 2006, as a Single Text on Environmental Issues. Regions, environmentalists, unions, and part of the water sector have criticized the decree because technically not sound and elaborated without consultation. The government intends to modify the decree according to a timetable already been published. The conference is aimed at promoting a public consultation between the Environment Minister, the committee set up to revise the decree , the national conference of regions and autonomous provinces, the presidents of the Italian Parliament committees dealing with this issue, and representatives of regional administrations, water basin authorities, unions, NGOs and other social and economic stakeholders.
More details on the management of water in Italy.