Italy’s Senate hosted a discussion on water as a strategic resource for sustainable development, with a focus on the Mattei Plan, equal partnerships with African countries, and long-term water infrastructure cooperation.
Water cooperation between Italy and Africa under the Mattei Plan
Water is not only a primary good, it is also a crucial element for the stability, growth and sustainable development of territories. Through the Mattei Plan, water, together with sustainable infrastructure, is one of the main pillars of cooperation between Italy and African countries. Italy’s commitment to Africa is based on a model of equal partnership focused on enhancing expertise, transferring technology and building lasting solutions for access to and efficient management of the resource. In this context, dialogue between institutions and sector operators aims to strengthen synergies, promote targeted investment and define a shared vision that recognises the strategic and vital value of water. These issues were discussed in the Senate during the event “Water resources in Italy and Africa”, promoted by Sogesid S.p.A., the State’s environmental engineering company.
Water as a strategic resource and the Mattei Plan
The sustainable management of water resources is one of the main strategic challenges of our time. Climate change, rising demand and infrastructure vulnerability require integrated policies capable of combining environmental protection, supply security and economic development. Across Africa, the preservation of water resources is also threatened by environmental contamination, overexploitation and declining quality of surface and groundwater. There is a need to implement advanced monitoring systems, promote the reuse of treated wastewater and adopt innovative purification techniques, within a circular economy framework and with a view to protecting ecosystems. Only integrated governance and responsible management can guarantee the availability of clean water for future generations.
According to the latest annual report to Parliament submitted by the Government in 2025, the Mattei Plan for Africa, in relation to water, aims to develop the water sector across the African continent along the entire water cycle, from supply to distribution and reuse, with particular attention to the design, construction, operation and maintenance of complex hydraulic infrastructure and water treatment and quality control plants.
Francesco Lollobrigida, Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, said: “Today the need to make the best use of a precious resource such as water is being felt particularly strongly, including in areas that in the past were not used to dealing with challenges of this kind. In this regard, responses can also come from those countries that have made very significant progress in technology, innovation and research. For too long, Africa has been approached almost exclusively through a charitable lens. The real shift lies instead in considering this continent as an equal partner, contributing through targeted actions, including the development of agriculture. Bringing together needs and intervention potential is certainly one of the most important aspects of these initiatives.”
For Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, Minister for the Environment and Energy Security: “The climate has changed and this is producing evident consequences for biodiversity. Today the amount of available water is often insufficient. Water is an essential good and its management represents a real global emergency. In this respect, it is necessary to ensure effective management of water resources in every municipality, urban area and river basin.
“At national level, we must ensure more sustainable and efficient management standards, also through a rationalisation of the number of operators, which is currently very high, with the goal of intervening effectively across the entire water cycle. The emergency is global, just think of tensions linked to water in Africa and the Middle East. At global level, the actions and cooperation we are advancing, including with Sogesid, are part of a broader framework of shared responsibility.”
Edmondo Cirielli, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, said: “The scarcity of water resources causes economic crises and serious hardship for populations, fuelling instability, tensions and forced migration. The Mattei Plan places water and its scarcity at the centre, identifying concrete solutions together with African partners. In this context, major projects have been launched in Libya and Tunisia, linked both to strengthening food self-sufficiency through land reclamation and the recovery of land for agriculture, and to improving hygiene and health conditions in various areas of North Africa.”
“These are initiatives that can activate economic development and growth, while making Italian experience and expertise available. Helping Africa also means helping Italy, the stability and prosperity of the African continent represent a major opportunity for our country, while a continent in difficulty would expose الجميع to very serious risks from different perspectives.”
Errico Stravato, Chief Executive Officer of Sogesid S.p.A., said: “Sogesid S.p.A., as the State’s environmental engineering company, within the framework of the Mattei Plan, promotes an integrated approach to water resource management aimed at supporting the development of efficient and resilient infrastructure and strengthening cooperation with African and Mediterranean countries, recognising water not only as a primary good, but also as a strategic lever for development, food security and social cohesion.“
“In this perspective lies the conviction that water resource management must be addressed starting from the national territorial scale, by valuing the different sectoral, managerial and regulatory interconnections, and then transferred and adapted to the contexts of Mediterranean countries.
“This vision is shared with leading partners such as the District Basin Authority of the Southern Apennines, which already looks to the Mediterranean dimension in its territorial planning and management, and with the One Water Committee, with which we will take part in the Euro-Mediterranean Water Forum scheduled for September in Rome. In this framework, the objective is to identify a driving theme in climate change mitigation and prevention, strengthen it in relation to the different national components of governance, and develop it through a logic of interconnection with the Mediterranean, in order to share and transfer it to the countries involved in the Mattei Plan.”
The speakers at the Senate event
Among those who also took part in the event were Marco Scurria, Deputy Group Leader of Fratelli d’Italia, Barbara Marinali, President of Acea, Fabio Fatuzzo, Extraordinary Commissioner for Wastewater Treatment, Marco Riccardo Rusconi, Director of AICS, Luca Dal Fabbro, President of Utilitalia, Nunzio Ferrulli, Director of Institutional Relations at Italgas, and Massimo Gargano, General Director of ANBI.
