Garda Ambiente Spa: Municipal Share Dispute and Water Cycle Management
Yes to the new company, no to allocating shares based on the revenue generated by individual municipalities. There is a dispute on the Brescia shore of the lake regarding the establishment of «Garda ambiente spa», a company that will see Brescia and Verona join forces in managing the collector, the treatment plant, and the integrated water cycle. The initiative, which has been on the table for years, is widely supported in terms of the concept.
So much so that the Municipalities of the Brescia Riviera of the lake, which are part of the special company Consorzio Garda Uno, are scheduled to meet on Tuesday 24th to decide on its establishment after an initial postponement. The differences lie instead in the shareholder agreements, particularly the criteria to be followed in allocating shares of ownership, essentially determining the “weight” each municipality will have in decision-making.
The day before the meeting, the Municipality of Lonato took a stance through a Government Resolution that approved a motion presented to the Consorzio and sent in recent days to all interested Brescia municipalities. Regarding this issue, the formation of Garda ambiente spa is underway—a company to be created by the Special Company Consorzio Garda Uno on the Brescia side and by the «Gardesana servizi» company on the Verona side.
The company will handle the integrated management of the collector and the treatment plant and is preparatory for managing services related to the integrated water cycle carried out by a single company for the lake basin. This establishment aims to obtain recognition of the Garda Area as an “optimal basin” for the management of the aforementioned services, distinguished and separate from the provincial-level basins provided for by the Galli Law.
The success of the operation is obviously linked to the participation of the greatest number of municipalities, creating an organization capable of competing on the market with other companies potentially interested in Garda. However, the Council of Lonato does not agree with the distribution of shareholder weight among the municipalities based solely on the value of services actually provided, as presented in the schema.
For this reason, through the motion, it proposes to partially amend the shareholder agreements, easing the criterion of sharing the shares solely based on proportional revenue. Lonato instead suggests introducing two weights (each worth 50%), taking into account not only revenue (50%) but also population size (50%).
Furthermore, the reallocation of shares based on revenue should occur not only after the first five-year period but every five years. «The proposal seems balanced» — agrees Felice Anelli, mayor of Desenzano — «We will see what the assembly decides».
