Water credits, the LIFE Svolta Blu project for the resilience of water resources

The official presentation of the "LIFE Svolta Blu" project, funded by the LIFE LIFE (101157983 — LIFE23-GIC-IT-LIFESVOLTABLU) project with a total budget of 2,025,510 euros, was held this morning at the Viacqua headquarters in Vicenza.

The initiative will start on 1 October 2024 and will last 40 months.
The key objective of the project will be the development and validation of a voluntary governance system for the exchange of water credits capable of promoting water saving and conservation actions, as is the case for carbon credits.

The main actors of "Svolta Blu" are Viacqua, which plays the role of leader, ANBI Veneto, Consorzio di Bonifica Alta Pianura Veneta, Fondazione Palazzo Festari Intesa Programmatica d'Area Alto Vicentino, University of Padua with its departments ICEA (Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering) and TESAF (Territory and Agro-Forestry Systems) and CSQA.

"In a context of increasingly evident climate change," said the President of Viacqua, Federico Giannato, "it is necessary to find a balance between the need for sufficient and high-quality water for human supply, the needs of agro-industrial and artisanal activities and the maintenance of natural ecosystems.

Water stress is precisely the misalignment between the use of the resource within a river basin and the ability of the system to regenerate it, which in our territory is an increasingly urgent issue.

Perhaps the most important challenge facing this project is to shape a new system of governance of water resources, which will gradually shift the focus of Viacqua from limited management to water services to shared management to protect water resources.

To reduce water stress is necessary the commitment of the whole community of Vicenza. We believe that the implementation of the dialogue between different territorial actors on common water objectives is one of the elements that made the project particularly interesting in the eyes of the European Union.»

Carbon trading has enabled private resources to be mobilised to finance carbon footprint reduction projects and has helped to raise awareness among businesses and citizens of the importance of measuring and reducing emissions climaltering. - explained Paolo Gurisatti, Director of Fondazione Palazzo Festari Intesa Programmatica d'Area Alto Vicentino. - Similarly, in the project LIFE Blue Breakthrough, who invests in actions of water saving or accumulation and recharge of aquifers distributed on the territory may generate "blue credits" and place them in a voluntary market where those who use water and want to reduce their water footprint can acquire them.»

In the first phase of the project, with the contribution of the ICEA department of the University of Padua, the water balance of the territory of Vicenza will be taken into account to obtain a current and future estimate, also in the light of the increasingly evident impacts of climate change, of the resource really available and be able to develop a sustainable planning of the various supplyings.

The involvement of many territorial actors will be fundamental, starting from the operators of the agricultural sector, from the industries and from the Local Authorities, first with training activities, then with more operative actions.

«Prior to any improvement in water management, an objective analysis of the current state of water consumption and environmental impacts is necessary, according to ISO 14046." specified Eng. Irene Grigoletto of CSQA - "The role of CSQA will be linked to the verification of the calculation of such impacts and the application of the good technical-managerial and district practices, in order to manage the resource and the water saving.»

The agricultural world is the first user of water resources in the territory of Vicenza and will be a key player in the project.

"The Consortia of Reclamation are already developing with the operators of the agricultural field initiatives of water efficiency - Alessandro Lunardi has explained, vice president of the Consorzio di Bonifica Alta Pianura Veneta - but there is a lack of resources to reproduce on a large scale the experiments carried out for example with the LIFE Aquor project in the Vicentino some years ago.»

'The water used for irrigation provides ecosystem services for the benefit of all citizens. The recharge of the aquifer is an example of the solutions based on the nature that Consortia of Reclamation and world of agriculture put in field for years - explains Francesco Cazzaro, president of ANBI Veneto -. We embrace the project because it aims to recognize the value of these actions, also through a credit mechanism, in this case "blue", as is the case for carbon credits.»

The project aims to map the water footprint of over 30 local businesses, including private companies, primary sector operators and local authorities.

After in-depth training and awareness-raising activities and thanks to the contribution of universities and certification bodies, the parameters for the creation of "blue credits" and the attribution of a fair value must be established and standardized.

Subsequently, the model will have to be tested and applied to validate its effectiveness in the field, with the long-term objective of being able to replicate it in other contexts in Veneto, Italy and Europe.

From the first simulations, 200,000 cubic meters of water can be recovered every year.

"The various actors present in the market (companies, citizens, stakeholders) show a growing attention and sensitivity towards the production and sustainable consumption of goods - added Mara Thiene, professor of the TESAF department of the University of Padua. "This propensity - as our studies show in other contexts - may generate a willingness to pay a premium price for more sustainable products/services, which will serve to quantify the economic value of blue credits. This dynamic, together with the desire to build sustainability strategies that reduce the environmental impacts of economic activities, can motivate industries to develop initiatives for the water efficiency of production processes, or to finance activities carried out by third parties to reduce their water footprint.»

LIFE Svolta Blu therefore aims to increase the interest and awareness of businesses and citizens in issues related to water management while making available more financial resources to achieve effective actions of saving and protection of water, with the aim of protecting Vicenza’s water resources in a context characterized by medium-high water stress.