Sustainability of economic development and governance patterns in water management - an overview on the reorganisation of public utilities in Campania, Italy, under EU Framework Directive in the field of water policy (2000/60/CE)

investments made by private investors: what is more in the prevailing
private/public-capital company model, private operators account for a minority
and, in the Region Campania no license has been assigned by means of public
contest.

In addition to the above economic and financial constraints, the infrastructural
upgrading of urban waste water treatment plants still encounters a lot of
political and administrative challenges. In fact, the Regional territory is still
influenced by a long-standing presence of a number of facilities under
controlled management which are given extraordinary managing powers in the
water sector and are required to implement urgent actions in the sector of
water treatment. Clearly, the extraordinary operations underway (which are
mainly focused on the construction of final plants), are not helping local
institutions to manage in a correct manner - by means of appropriate planning
and organization processes - the integrated water resource cycle as their action
risks to overlap that of ATOs which are in charge of the ordinary management
of the Integrated Water Service.

The same principle under which Ambit Plan and service management should
coincide risks, indeed, to be upset due to the effect of the autonomous choices
that the extraordinary managers of some entities operate in the field of water
treatment without taking into account the efficiency and organization of the
“upstream” territorial systems as far as, for example, the municipality
management of the sewage system is concerned ¹⁴

The entry into force of the new Framework Directive raises some remarks. In
terms of reduction of pollutant emissions, the Directive marks the transition
from an “end-of-pipe” approach to an integrated approach that tends to focus
on the achievement of objectives of quality for the receiving water bodies
through the reduction of the sources of pollution. Such an approach implies,
first of all, an activity of inter- sector actions planning which should be
consistent with the objective of sustainable economic growth. Such planning
must be intended to re-allocate public and private investments to new
environmentally-friendly technology. This implies the definitive transition of
water policy from a command-and-control approach to a voluntary policy

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