Policy per il risparmio idrico: variabili ambientali ed operative che influenzano le scelte dei gestori

The management of water resources is largely debated in the practical field and in the academic literature because of the worsening of the water crisis. It requires the improvement of the efficiency in the service delivery and the definition of policies to save water, which have to involve the end-user. Given the peculiarities of the good, water demand can be managed by different tools, whose comparison on three different profiles - effectiveness, efficiency and equity - shows the importance of the education and information campaigns, used alone or jointly with other levers. Starting from these findings, the present work aims to assess whether water utilities promote water saving campaigns and to investigate the operational and environmental variables that influence the information intensity. The empirical analysis, carried out in the Portuguese context, maps and counts the messages for sustainable water use displayed in the websites of 168 water utilities, whose distribution highlights their low propensity to promote effective campaigns. The further assessment of factors affecting the information intensity, using the Poisson regression, reveals that small, public, mono-business operators, which report lower losses and provide the service indirectly, in larger, less densely populated and more economically and socially developed areas, have a higher number of water saving messages. Differently, price and rainfall are not explanatory variables of the campaigns information intensity. The study should raise awareness among managers and users and guide the reforms of the sector, which need to consider not only the economic performance, but also the relationship between the organizational model and the social and environmental profile of water utilities.