The city of Teramo, which gave Abruzzo its name, rocketed up to 20th place in the Italian 2024 Urban Annual Ecosystem Listings compiled by Legambiente. It’s Abruzzo’s only shining star in this important sustainability index that has been running since 1993 and measures air, water, waste, mobility, urban environment, energy, and efficient land use across Italy’s 106 provincial capitals. Chieti came in at 67th place, followed by Pescara, 72nd place, and L’Aquila, 75th place. This year’s winner was Emilia-Romagna.
How Important is This Index?
Currently, 74% of Europe’s population lives in cities. This is projected to increase to 83.7% by 2051. This trend will adversely affect the quality of life in each city unless each adopts sustainable urbanisation. Through interlocking the social, environmental and economic aspects of these urban environments, healthy and prosperous cities are created that can sustain their population. Abruzzo needs these types of cities to attract and keep in the region, those leaving Abruzzo’s mountain and hilltop villages due to the lack of investment in local infrastructure and services.
We think it is valuable for those considering buying a house in Abruzzo. By looking at the provincial city, there is an indicator of what level of services and air quality to expect at a provincial level that affects families, businesses and investments.
The Most Basic Service – Water
As droughts become the norm before even hitting the now long hot summer season with almost no snow in some mountains over the winter, the value of water becomes even more important and flagged accordingly. 70% of water in Chieti doesn’t make it through the taps due to poor maintenance of ancient and leaky pipes. This summer restaurants in the seaside town of Vasto turned away customers as their water storage facilities were not enough to cover their customers flushing the toilets. Far-reaching water rationing is commonplace in the province of Chieti for long periods, especially on the coast. If you don’t have an autoclave to store water, or adequate space/land to house an additional water storage system norms like washing clothes become more difficult, and life becomes constrained. It has been estimated that there will be a drop of 4.5% in the population of the province of Chieti between 2021 and 2030, bringing the population down to just 358 thousand. This is double the national average. The quality and sustainability of services that this index flags and which cajole people into staying are already having an impact.
How do the other provincial capitals fare? The city of L’Aquila loses 68.8% of its water (the worst for a regional capital) and Pescara, 55%. Teramo’s loss of water through leaky pipes sits at 25%, the national average is 37.8%.
Teramo also recently became the only southern municipality to appear in the Top 50 of the “City Vision—Stati generali delle città intelligent” index, which evaluates the level of ‘smartness’ in Italian municipalities regarding governance, economy, the environment, smart living, smart mobility, and people.
The ranking of Abruzzo’s other provincial cities is L’Aquila in 53rd place, Pescara in 61st place and Chieti in 71st place.
Here’s hoping the Abruzzo regional government announces its intention to have at least half of its provincial capitals at the top of these lists sooner rather than later!
Author: Sam Dunham
Sam is a freelance SEO content creator and IGCSE Geography and English teacher at Istituto Cristo Re in Rome. She also runs the Life In Abruzzo Cultural Association, sharing stories and insights about this captivating region.
Alongside raising a teenager, Sam hosts guests at her family’s traditional home, the Little House of the Firefly in Abruzzo, offering a warm welcome and insider tips on local culture, food, and hidden gems.
