National Center for Water Safety (CeNSiA)
Director: Luca Lucentini
Phone: (+39) 06 4990 2800
Secretary's Phone: (+39) 06 4990 1
Email: luca.lucentini@iss.it; censia@iss.it
The National Center for Water Safety provides technical-scientific guidance, supports policy and legislative development, provides regulatory support, fosters cooperation, conducts training, and exercises oversight concerning aspects of human health linked to water access and sanitary services. This comprehensive role ranges from the origins and conditions of water resources within the environment to their interactions with climatic variables, environmental and anthropogenic elements, the maintenance of hygienic processes, treatments, facilities, and materials in contact with water, the management of water use and reuse, and the diverse pathways of human exposure. The fields of application encompass water for human consumption, agricultural, animal and food production, recreational and bathing activities, sustainable reuse practices, as well as the interplay between marine environment and human well-being.
The Center is structured into four functional areas: microbiological and virological risk; chemical risk; coordination, management, and data access; assessment and approval of water safety plans.
CeNSiA's activities are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda and the WHO guidance on climate-environment-water and health.
Specifically, CeNSiA:
- Approves Water Safety Plans (WSPs) and grants authorizations for the introduction into the national market of chemical reagents and filtering materials for the treatment of water intended for human consumption, as stipulated by Legislative Decree 18/2023.
- Supports actions to ensure universal and equitable access to safe water and sanitation, enhancing the resilience of the integrated water cycle to climate and environmental pressures and changes.
- As national focal point, it carries out functional activities for the implementation of the WHO-UNECE Protocol on Water and Health of the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, adopted in London on June 17, 1999.
- Provides technical-scientific support through research and studies for the development of international and national regulations concerning water quality, use, and reuse.
- Provides scientific support for preventive and responsive interventions in environmental and health emergencies related to water and health.
- Performs analytical assessments, evaluations, inspections, and provides consultation to the Ministry of Health, the Government, Regions, Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano, local authorities, and European and international organizations in matters of water and health, including emerging technologies and (re)emerging substances and pathogens.
- Carries out research and consultancy projects, international and national cooperation, training activities, and communication regarding sea, water, and health.
- Exercises coordination and technical-scientific support tasks concerning water and health within the National environmental and climatic risk Prevention System (SNPS), as specified by Law June 29, 2022, No. 79, including environmental surveillance based on wastewater monitoring.
The following systems are established and managed by CeNSiA:
- The centralized information system called Dynamic Territorial Registry of Drinking Water (AnTeA), in accordance with Article 19 of Legislative Decree 18/2023.
- The national wastewater-based epidemiology system for research and surveillance of viral agents, chemical and microbiological parameters, and emerging risk factors, including antimicrobial resistance.
