IL CONTRIBUTO DEI SERVIZI IDRICI INTEGRATI AL FABBISOGNO IRRIGUO DEI COMPRENSORI AGRICOLI: IL CASO DI MILANO

During its history Milan city has been able to treasure its wastewater collected by Vettabbia irrigation ditch. Since the XII century, also thanks to Cistercensi (monks from Chiaravalle Abbey) great endeavour, the use of effusing the filthy waters from Vettabbia over the rotten lawns of a great and huge agricultural district, situated in the South the City, was going to become the most spread method used to regain the nutrients contained into the wastewaters and, at the same time, a great procedure to optimize the fresh forage production. During the second half of XIX century this technique was refined and made more efficient in order to allow the sustainable and ecofriendly disposal of the drainage waters raised from the new sewerage system of the City. Since 2004 Milan adopted an effective water treatment plant which permits the reuse of the purified waters for what concerns agriculture, becoming, in this field, the most significant model in Europe.