It is not an affair that concerns only the Palaces. It's not a game for secret rooms and a select few. The near future of Sardinian water is destined to burst, without warning, into the taps and above all into the amazing bills of Sardinians. Privatizing or keeping water management public is not an ideological question, if anything it is a fundamental chapter in the life of every Sardinian, from those who live in an inland town to those who occupy the large cities of the island. The risk is around the corner, hidden by silence, flowing in the undergrowth of business: an essential asset subtly transformed into a financial, private and commercial deal. All this in an island region, surrounded by the sea, without rivers that connect it with the continent, without pipelines that transfer water from the glaciers.
Insular speculation
It is obvious: entrusting the management of Sardinian water to "private individuals", foreigners at that, would multiply the dangers of privatization compared to any European or Italian reality. The water and hydrographic isolation of the Island would have a further aggravating factor, that of "insular speculation". In short, there would be a risk of the "aircraft" effect. The "private" management of flights, with the substantial cancellation of true territorial continuity, has generated speculation, isolation and skyrocketing fares. For water, an essential good more than any other service, it would be even worse. To "produce" drinkable and constant water, efficient and modern infrastructures are needed, capable of "raising" the quality and reducing or containing the cost of the service, what citizens then have to pay in their bills, given that the tariffs are the management sum and infrastructure investments.
Rates at risk
The substantial difference between public management and private assignment of the service is all here: privatization has led everywhere to an enormous increase in water tariffs, given that private companies systematically aim to maximize profits, in practice to earn increasingly, and to pass on additional costs to users through bills. The transition is crucial: from water understood as an essential public good to an asset to be exploited commercially. The regulatory instrument of the Area Authority would be of little use in the face of the progress of private water greed all aimed at making money. Moreover, it is obvious that there will be no joint stock company ready to embrace the " Franciscan " cause of the " sister water ", or the management one of the " Fatebenefratelli ". They will come to make money, moreover in a land, Sardinia, where the water service has not only not improved, but where there are daily "flaws" in the system, almost as if the collapse had been planned in order to then be able to "invoke" , without hesitation, the "advent" of private individuals. The concept, disseminated by those most interested in private business, can be summarized: after the Abbanoa disaster, private individuals are welcome. In reality, the danger is around the corner, given that the European Commission and the Competition Authority are putting the spotlight on the next steps of the island's integrated water service. A pressure that leaves no room for doubt: the management of Sardinian water must be entrusted to private individuals. The arguments of the two institutions are emblematic.
Brussels looms
The General Directorate of Competition in Brussels has done nothing other than recall the "commitments" of the Italian State, in fact proposed by the Sardinian Region through Abbanoa, which would impose on the water service two very heavy "obligations" written in 2013: bringing forward the expiry of public management of Abbanoa to 2025, instead of 2028, and the contextual international tender to privatize the service by January 1, 2026. The men of Europe have explicitly written this. A chapter published in the European Journal. A sort of "noose" around the neck that the Region itself has imposed on itself: «The Commission therefore believes that the measures proposed by the Italian authorities, which involve, first of all, the reduction of the duration of the concession, which will thus expire on 31 December 2025 and, secondly, the opening of the water services market in Sardinia upon expiry of the concession, are appropriate given the type of distortion of competition in question. In particular, the Commission notes that the Italian authorities intend to organize an open, transparent and non-discriminatory tender to award the concession for the provision of the SII in Sardinia starting from 1 January 2026, which will allow all interested operators to compete to provide the service in question (so-called "for-market" competition). In other words, the privatization that you "spontaneously proposed" starting from 2025 has been granted.
Out of the norm
If for Europe the constraint on privatization is the one signed by Abbanoa and its surroundings, in exchange for the green light for a "phantom" plan for the "restructuring" of the Sardinian water company, which proved to be a failure from every point of view, both managerial and financial, for the Competition Authority, the reasons that put public and essentially regional " in house " management under attack are all to be found in the " governance" of the water company and its institutional structure. Also in this case the Authority's arguments aim directly at the responsibilities of the Sardinian institutions: «On the performance of the management from an economic point of view, the survey highlights negative results for the manager, which recorded losses in the financial year relating to 2022. Furthermore , the technical quality of the service is overall insufficient for Abbanoa SpA, being deficient from the point of view of water losses and not reaching the quality standards set by Arera in relation to the quality of the water supplied and the adequacy of the sewerage. Furthermore, indicators on user satisfaction are lacking. In this regard, the survey does not provide clarifications or information on the actions implemented or planned by the manager to achieve the quality objectives defined by Arera". Decisive steps to reject the "public" management of Abbanoa and advance the specter of "private" water management in Sardinia. The Authority further writes: «Moreover, it is noted that, from the survey in question, the requirements established by the law for the "in house" form of management in relation to the company entrusted with the management of the service cannot be deduced». The formula adopted by Agcom is limited to "the requirements cannot be deduced", which does not mean that they do not exist, but blatantly constitutes a very serious "warning". There is worse, regarding the "doing nothing" of the Sardinian institutions to avoid the privatization of Sardinian water. In Agcom's "reconnaissance" act of 18 March, the concept is explicit: «it appears instead that "there are no procedures in place for the organizational reorganization of the government body, with reference to which problems have often been found in the delegated activities at local level regarding the updating of the documents necessary for an orderly transposition of the obligations established by the regulation". Eloquent summary: you are doing nothing to avoid privatization.
Vulnus on skills
And there is more in the Authority's act: «In this regard, the Authority believes that the shareholding structure of Abbanoa SpA may violate article 4, paragraph 1, of Legislative Decree no. 175/2016 - in the part in which it requires that public administrations establish, purchase or maintain shareholdings exclusively in companies whose object is the production of goods or services strictly necessary "for the pursuit of their institutional purposes" - Abbanoa SpA being controlled by the Region and since the organization and management of the integrated water service does not fall within regional competences". The passage on the lack of competences of the Sardinian Region in the management of the water service, underlined by the Guarantor for Competition and the Market, is in itself a very serious flaw . In reality, the Guarantor makes an incorrect generalization between Regions which is ill-suited to Sardinia given its autonomous constitutional prerogative.
Constitution doc
Moreover, it was the Constitutional Court itself that clarified the significant difference between ordinary Regions and Special Regions. In the ruling of the High Court of 29 March 2019, which concerns the regional authority of Sardinia in the matter of water service, in rejecting the State's appeal, it is stated: «With regards to the regions with special autonomy, this Court has repeatedly specified that the aforementioned constitutional jurisprudence "is not immediately transposable into the constitutionality judgment that affects the laws of these regions, in which it is necessary to preliminarily define the scope of the statutory competences in this matter of a region with special autonomy"". The message is explicit: the public good of water is also a constitutional-statutory issue. The "declared" regional commitment to "privatization", undertaken by the Region in 2013 with Europe, without any legislative endorsement, and the same calls from the Authority, in fact openly conflict with the Sardinian Statute, the Constitution and regional laws. An unresolved conflict that looms like a "sword of Damocles” over the most important of the island's public services, the water sector. Despite this, however, the privatization of Sardinian water is upon us. It advances rapidly, between silence and “do nothing” of the Palaces of politics.
