Tendenze, controtendenze e ipostatizzazioni nel governo e nella gestione dei servizi idrici

The essay analyses the management and the regulation of water services in Italy. The author examines the judgements of the Corte costituzionale and the ways of providing water, making detailed references to the principles of European Union law. The author stresses hypostatizations, ideological theories, misinterpretations and discretionary legislative choices which typify the discussion on public/private dichotomy in the water industry sector. Furthermore, the author examines the management of water services, highlighting centripetal tendencies, under the aegis of the protection of competition and environment, and centrifugal countertrends of some Regions. In conclusion, the author shows that the debate on the ownership of water service providers is not, ex se, an effective guarantee of better performances nor of protection of fundamental rights that water supply satisfies. However, this debate – highly ideological – on gains and faults of public and private providers overshadows the crucial matter of the quality of the regulatory system and the supervision over supplier’s activities, which condition, in practice, the outcomes of public and private providers.