World Water Day is celebrated on March 22 each year to raise awareness among citizens, businesses and institutions about an important issue for the entire planet.

The anniversary was established in 1922 by the United Nations with the aim of generating awareness about the many issues surrounding the waste of this precious resource.

In fact, the purpose of this day is to safeguard the world’s water sources, educate on the prevention of water waste, and inform the public about the causes and consequences of water waste.

This year’s theme combines water waste with a closely related issue: climate change.

The causes of water waste: how much water do we waste per year?

According to Istat data, Italy, with 156 cubic meters per inhabitant in 2015, has the highest per capita withdrawal of water for drinking among all European Union countries. Of course, only part of the 9.5 billion cubic meters of water withdrawn is fed into municipal distribution networks (about 8.3 billion) and half of this is then delivered to users (about 4 billion).

So why is it that 47.9 percent of withdrawn water does not reach end users? The cause is water leakage from the adduction and distribution networks, which in turn is due to broken pipelines, degraded networks, unauthorized withdrawals, and meter measurement errors.

However, water loss through municipal networks is not the only cause of annual wastage: more than 50 percent of the total volume used in Italy is for irrigation in the agribusiness sector.

It may not seem wasteful, since water used to produce food has a specific purpose, but of all the m3 used for irrigation each year, as much as 73 million is used to produce fruits and vegetables that are not consumed.

Water is a resource to be protected: climate change will bring great drought

Within a few years, the climate will change to the point of causing large periods of drought, followed by extreme weather phenomena such as floods and inundation, as the water cycle will be severely compromised-just think of the increased evaporation caused by rising temperatures.

Indeed, in 2017 there was an overall 40 percent reduction in the flow rates of Italy’s major rivers compared to the previous 30 years, and this is just one of the many tragic consequences of climate change.

The pressure on water bodies caused by climate change will also cause (and is already causing)ocean acidification andrising sea levels, which in turn will lead to non-negligible consequences for the planet, such as the modification of flora and fauna, changing sea currents and the submergence of large portions of land.

Regusto releases new impact index: here’s how to learn about water savings through the platform

Therefore, we can say that World Water Day should be a starting point to give rise to initiatives to protect the environment, prevent waste andfocus on caring for our planet.

Regusto seeks to make a difference through the platform of donations and sales between nonprofits and businesses, which aims to redistribute products, decrease waste, and generate significant positive environmental impact.

Climate warming, as we have known for decades now, is caused by the steady increase in CO2 emissions.

Against the backdrop of greenhouse gas emissions and water waste, Regusto fits in with the opportunity to learn about the benefits of its environmental impact as a result of donations and sales put in place through the platform.

The first Sustainability Marketplace currently offers 2 impact indexes for you to consult through the documentation provided by it:

• Environmental impact (saving of CO2 emissions)
• social impact (lunch equivalents)

Thanks to the donations and sales that have occurred on the platform through December 2020, the following have been saved 14,500 kg of CO2!It is important for companies to know data about their positive environmental and social impact, which is why starting today, in honor of World Water Day, Regusto is announcing the upcoming release of the third impact index (the one related to water saved). In addition, over the coming months, Regusto will engage in the implementation of new indices that will enable the platform to provide data on additional fields of influence as well.