What is more, the subsequent amendments to this Law, especially in terms of
planning (including the prescriptions on soil conservation contained in Law
183/89, that set up the so-called Basin Authority), have turned out to be
sources of uncertainties also on very important aspects.
But the rules and regulations passed after Law 183/89, including Law 36/94
(the so-called Galli Law) and the Legislative Decree 152/99 and ff., have
marked the emergence of a new culture of water in line with the principles of
sustainable development under which the use of water resources must be
environmentally-friendly and meet the needs of future generations.
The process of reform started focuses on the definition of new levels of
coordination that, overcoming the traditional administrative boundaries, are
expected to account for a new planning and government system destined to
water resources
Indeed, this process is in line with the broader trend to re-define the entire
organization of roles and powers of both central and local Authorities.
Reference is clearly made to the reform of Title V of Part II of the Italian
Constitutional Treaty introduced by Constitutional Law n. 3/2001. Said reform
has remarkably widened the sphere of the administrative powers of the
Regional Boards putting local governments on an equal standing in a
framework inspired to subsidiarity where the central and crucial role of
Municipalities stands out.
The reform of the organizational model of the integrated water resource cycle,
as defined in the above Galli Law, has dictated a genuine “regionalization” of
water public utilities in terms of the organization of their operations on local
scale. No doubt, Galli Law has resulted in a multifunctional system based on a
greater co-participation on a local level of the subjects involved in the
operations of the water sector.
This Law seems to have essentially anticipated the principles of power-sharing
across Central, Regional and Local Authorities established by the
Constitutional Treaty as it re-assigns to the Central Authorities only those
general tasks expected to be evenly available throughout the territory of the
country. Regional Boards must, under the same law, i)undertake to adopt
water saving schemes and incentives (with special incentives for water
recycling), ii) select amd set up Optimal Territorial Ambits (ATOs), iii) update