The Privatization of Water Services in Italy: Make or Buy, Capability and Efficiency Issues

Application to a Player Operating in Italy of an AHP Model for the Identification of the Most Advantageous Technical Alternatives in the Management of the Integrated Water Service

“…Law n. 36/94 introduced a vertical integration of the aqueduct, sewer and purification activities, along with a functional integration of the existing services. In this way, the legislator wanted to create economies of scale in an industrial management of the entire water service (from caption to wastewater treatment), with the dual aim of encouraging investments in the urban water management sector, while also creating a management capable of self-financing, through reveues so as to cover both the costs induced by the greater demand and the arrears existing in the sewerage and purification sector [ 7 , 8 ]. The Galli Law also introduced a clear separation between the planning and control functions, assigned by the legislator to the local Authority (EGA – Area Governance Body), and the production and management functions, entrusted to new subjects operating according to a business logic and chosen by the tender.…”