Our strategy for responsible and effective water management

Contributing to the preservation of water resources is a fundamental part of our sustainability goals. Our efforts in this area begin by defining a series of actions to monitor and counter the effects of climate change such as water scarcity and desertification, giving priority to operational sites in water-stressed areas.

We also undertake initiatives to reduce freshwater withdrawals and replace them with water from secondary sources (rainwater, reclaimed groundwater, treated wastewater or desalinated water) in order to reduce impacts on local communities and ecosystems.

The publication of Eni’s position on water is a further concrete step towards strengthening the commitments of the CEO Water Mandate in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Transparency in the pursuit of these objectives supports all our actions and we apply this principle at every level and to any business adhering to the main Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) indices.

The Eni-CNR “Ipazia D’Alessandria” Centre in Metaponto, Basilicata, aims to promote innovative solutions and technologies for the efficiency and optimization of water management in farming in order to mitigate the impacts of drought in Mediterranean countries and other strategic areas such as the Horn of Africa, Sahel, and the Middle East.

The activities are part of the sustainability and the circularity strategies of urban wastewater treatment cycle. Wastewater management represents a significant economic and environmental cost, but it can also turn into a potential economic development opportunity. In fact, recovering and utilizing the vast quantities of water discharged by sewage treatment plants can not only help mitigate the recurring water crises that afflict the agricultural world, but can give concrete development to new supply chains in the bio-agri energy sector.

There are three research themes that the joint centre's activities are based upon:

• optimising the use of water in farming both through innovative irrigation systems that reduce water use and through the efficient absorption of water by plants through the study of bacteria and fungi naturally present in the root system of plants. Further to this, selecting plant genotypes with higher growth capacity in different environments by means of advanced high-throughput automated field phenotyping platforms; 
• developing new technologies for the treatment of civil and industrial wastewater with the possibility of reusing treated water in agriculture (experimental). This can play a role in climate change mitigation by reducing the emission of greenhouse gases while contributing to the sequestration of the C in the soil. Wastewater is also often the most available resource in many arid areas, with constant flow rates throughout the year and few areas of use.  
• optimally managing coastal groundwater, mitigating on the one hand the risk of salt wedge intrusion, which progressively leads to a salinisation of the groundwater with a decrease in the volume of available fresh groundwater, and on the other hand the risk of subsidence.

The first line of activity, which specifically studied the response of selected crops to water stress, involved conducting field campaigns in which crops were subjected to different irrigation regimes; these were lower compared to theoretical requirements. The physiological and agronomic responses of the tested genotypes are periodically studied, including by means of digital instrumentation installed on a fleet of drones, to assess the effects of reduced water supply.  

In addition, the bacterial consortia naturally present in the soil and root system are analysed in order to identify strains with promoting characteristics by laboratory analysis on samples taken in the field that can be used as biostimulants (PGPR) in subsequent campaigns Since the start of the project, four test campaigns have been conducted, two of them with oilseed crops, the results of which will help define optimal water resource management practices.  

The second project involves creating innovative prototypes to treat civil wastewater with the aim of reusing the treated water for agricultural irrigation. The prototypes will be located at the water purification plant in the municipality of Ferrandina, and will complement the one built by the School of Engineering of the University of Basilicata (a partner of the Ipazia d'Alessandria Centre), which is already in operation at the Ferrandina purification plant. Once the experimental treatment plant is up and running, the continuation of activities will consist of irrigating oil crops to compare the effects of irrigation with purified wastewater versus irrigation with spring water.  

On the other hand, the third project underway at the Research Centre involves numerically modelling coastal aquifers with the aim of simulating their behaviour under varying environmental conditions and flow rates, mainly for irrigation purposes. The main objective is to create a management tool for the groundwater resource that allows its proper use and avoids the risks of salt wedge intrusion and subsidence that could be generated as a result of excessive pumping. The study area is the north-eastern section of the Metaponto plain. The modelling is supplemented with results from sampling campaigns carried out in the study area.

Eni has always combined its energy activities with the promotion of initiatives to benefit communities. Our value creation drivers include  alliances for the promotion of local development in the countries where we operate. Indeed, we are not only committed to enhancing the resources of producer countries, allocating their gas production to the local market and facilitating access to electricity, but also to promoting a broad portfolio of community-based initiatives: water access initiatives are an important part of this commitment.