Water in the Brescia area: the Province approves increases up to 2029. Part of the money for the networks had gone into other works

29 October 2026, 15:54

On 28 October the Provincial Council of Brescia approved, almost unanimously, the update of water tariffs decided by the Ufficio d'Ambito, the body controlled by the Province that plans the works and prices of aqueducts, sewers and treatment plants. For a family of three using 150 cubic metres a year, the cost rises from just under €400 today to €459 in 2029, excluding VAT, both in the municipalities served by A2A and in those of Acque Bresciane, the public company that runs the rest of the province. Brescia's households and businesses pay; the two operators, which fund the works through the tariff, collect.

The reason was explained by the president of the Ufficio d'Ambito: the increase «serves to recover years of missed investment». Between the 1980s and the early 2000s, he recalled, part of the development charges, that is, the sums builders pay to the municipality for roads, sewers and services, was spent on other public works instead of on the water networks. That money had already been paid by the builders. The networks are now being paid for by households, through the tariff.

The delay can be measured in the pipes. In Acque Bresciane's networks more than four litres in ten are lost before reaching the tap; in A2A's, about three. The water that is lost, however, still has to be drawn from the wells and pushed through the mains by pumps, and the operators recover that cost through the tariff paid by whoever turns on the tap. Every household's bill includes water that never reached the meter.

Nor is the problem only Brescia's. According to Istat, in 2022 Italy's networks lost 42.4 per cent of the water fed into them. And for substandard sewers and treatment plants the European Court of Justice condemned Italy in 2018: for that judgment alone, the Court of Auditors calculated in a report of January 2025, the State had already paid Brussels €210 million in penalties, and it estimates about another 300 million for the penalties due up to 2030. Those fines come out of the public budget, that is, out of the taxes of all Italians. The Brescia area too, the president of the Ufficio d'Ambito recalled, has its own European proceedings on wastewater treatment. So treatment plants are paid for twice: through the tariff, when they are built, and through taxes, for as long as they are missing.

One question remains for the Ufficio d'Ambito and the Province of Brescia: how much water will still be lost in 2029, when the family of three will pay €459?

Part of the money for the sewers went into other works. The lost water, on the other hand, has stayed in the bill, all of it.

This article was prompted by a news item published in QuiBrescia on 29 October 2026.