Models of regional or municipal Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in order to favour the industrialization of the integrated water service in the ATOs of southern Italy

摘要

This paper assesses the critical issues in the industrialization of water services in southern Italy and introduces two Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models; a regional company for bulk water service and a network company at the scale of the integrated water service (IWS - municipal water distribution, sewerage and wastewater treatment) as a means to overcome them. Within the general framework of the current national legislation providing the transfer via tenders of water service to contractors in charge of operation, maintenance and carrying out the investments to be paid back by tariffs under public regulation and control, critical aspects in the industrialization process of the water services are identified at different levels. This starts from the drawbacks of the methodology prescribed for the assessment of the average tariff, to the existence of long transients towards the steady-state phase, during which contractors are demanded to undertake risks related to the very uncertain environment in which they are to operate, that are perceived as too high in comparison with the possible guarantees. PPP models can represent a way to share risk between public and private partners, and to encourage investors. The two above-mentioned PPP models are then introduced and briefly discussed; one at a regional level for the bulk water service and one at the ATO (Ambito Territoriale Ottimale - Optimal Territorial Ambit, an aggregation of municipalities) level for the management of public assets (network company). They can represent suitable operational models to share the risks related to the transition phase while assuring an effective public control and seizing all the opportunities of an industrial management of service without lowering the expected environmental and service quality targets. The simulation of the behaviour of the network companies in two Sicilian ATOs shows that the achievement of consumers' benefit (rate reduction) can be combined with increased operation returns, provided that the public company is able to offer a superior reliability level to the credit system.