in Barcelona
3 to 5 Nov 2026
The Assemblea Territoriale Idrica of Trapani, the water authority of Sicily’s westernmost province, asked the Region of Sicily on 6 November 2026 for more than €95 million in extraordinary funding, of which €51 million would buy and install smart meters and remote-reading systems and €44.54 million would pay for four sewer and treatment projects, according to Itacanotizie. The note, signed by ATI president Francesco Gruppuso, was addressed to regional president Renato Schifani, the competent regional assessors, the leadership of the Sicilian Regional Assembly, Trapani’s deputies and the regional Department for Water and Waste, with the mayors of the district and the prefect of Trapani involved.
How The €51 Million Metering Request Divides
The metering line totals €51 million, of which €21.67 million is earmarked for the 14 municipalities that came from the former management of the Ente Acquedotti Siciliani and €29.35 million for the remaining municipalities of the ATI, which adds up to €51.02 million. The projects named in the note are Trapani at €13.2 million, Marsala at €4.85 million, Mazara del Vallo at €1.94 million and Petrosino at about €688,000, which together come to roughly €20.68 million, or about 41% of the metering total.
Metering therefore accounts for about 53% of the €95.56 million combined by the two lines, and the sewer and treatment works for the remaining 47%.
The authority states that the purpose is point measurement of consumption and certified billing under the standards of ARERA, Italy’s energy, networks and environment regulator, ahead of the arrival of a single operator for the province. The projects are also expected to reduce water losses and consumption and to secure wells, tanks and network control systems.
All of the smart-metering projects were submitted to the Sicily ERDF regional programme for 2021-2027 and did not receive the funding requested.
Four Sewer And Treatment Works Worth €44.54 Million
The second part of the request covers four sewer and treatment interventions: €24.12 million in Alcamo for the sewer network of Alcamo Marina and the upgrade of the treatment plant, over €18.15 million in Trapani for flood defence and the adaptation of the sewer system, about €1.38 million in Favignana for maintenance of the submarine wastewater outfall, and about €887,000 in Calatafimi Segesta for efficiency work at the Sasì treatment plant.
The Alcamo project alone represents about 54% of the sewer and treatment line and about 25% of the full request, which makes its approval the largest single variable in the sewer package.
According to the ATI, the works cannot draw on European funds because they do not fall under EU infringement procedures that are already open, a formal requirement that Gruppuso says could force communities to wait for infringement proceedings and possible penalties before obtaining resources.
Funding Routes Proposed To The Region
The ATI asks that the next regional stability law include dedicated spending chapters for the water service and for the former EAS municipalities. For the sewer and treatment works it proposes alternative channels, including the Development and Cohesion Fund and framework programme agreements.
It also proposes that the ATI act as formal beneficiary of the funds while individual municipalities carry out the works, a model that the document says was already used for the water emergency and that is meant to give faster and better coordinated procedures. Gruppuso asked the regional presidency and the presidency of the Regional Assembly to open a discussion table immediately to identify the extraordinary resources, and the ATI and the municipalities involved say they can adjust the technical projects and financial plans quickly to allow works to start.
Governance Background In Trapani
The Trapani ATI covers the 25 municipalities of the province, and in July 2023 Gruppuso, the mayor of Calatafimi, was elected its president, replacing Nicola Rizzo, according to Quotidiano di Sicilia. In January 2023 the Region had placed the 17 municipalities formerly under EAS management under a commissioner, Rosaria Barresi, with the task of guiding the ATI towards the choice of a single manager, as reported by Quotidiano di Sicilia.
The metering request therefore ties the ex-EAS municipalities to the single-operator transition, since €21.67 million of the €51 million is directed at the municipalities the ATI describes as burdened by problems inherited from the previous management.
Sicilian Benchmark From Ragusa
A comparable Sicilian programme is that of Iblea Acque, which serves 12 municipalities in Ragusa province and was admitted on 5 August 2026 to a national grant of more than €17 million toward a €22.3 million programme. That programme covers more than 1,700 km of pipe serving roughly 250,000 residents and combines loss reduction, aqueduct digitalisation, telecontrol and smart meters, and hidden-leak location, with grant rates of up to 85% of costs for projects delivered through network digitalisation.
The ATI’s €51 million metering line is more than double the size of the entire Ragusa programme, and its inclusion in the next regional stability law will decide whether the €21.67 million for the 14 ex-EAS municipalities and the €29.35 million for the other municipalities move from candidacy to procurement, with the Ragusa programme’s cost per resident as the closest Sicilian reference for the same group of interventions.
