Legislative Decree No. 275 concerning reorganization in the field of public water concessions, 1993.

Important amendments and additions are made to the basic Water Act of 1933 in the matter of concessions for the abstraction of public waters, wells, and concessions for the extraction of inert maters from riverbeds, and for the occupation of lakeshores. Among others, the threshold quantities of water abstracted for an abstraction to qualify as "major" have been revised upwards, and new categories of abstractions added (art. 1). In addition, the advice of the competent River Basin Authority must now be sought in the process of granting all abstraction concessions (art. 3). Criteria are laid down to guide the Government regulators in deciding on competing abstraction requests (art. 4) and in granting abstraction requests (art. 5). In this particular respect, regard shall be had, among others, to the minimum flow requirements of the watercourse concerned. Concessionnaires must henceforth provide, at their own expense, to the installation and maintenance of measuring equipment of water abstracted (art. 8). All existing wells must be reported to the competent Government authority by the owner or user, under penalty of a fine and the seizure and eventual sealing of the well (art. 10). All charges for the abstraction of public waters, for the extraction of inert material from the bed of rivers, and for the occupation of lakeshores have been revised upwards (arts. 12-14). However, abstractors who employ watersaving technologies or who recycle the water in whole or in part are entitled to rebates. And those who extract materials from the bed of rivers, other than or in greater quantities than spelt out in the concession agreement, are liable to prosecution for environmental damage.