In accordance with article 21 of Legislative Decree No. 152 of 1999, the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces shall define special areas for safeguarding water resources with a view to: (a) preserving the state of water resources; (b) maintaining and improving the quality of surface waters and underground waters destined to human consumption and supplied through waterworks of public interest. Such special areas shall be distinguished into the following types: (1) Total Protection Zones; (2) Respect Zones; (3) Protection Zones. The present Agreement has been adopted within the Permanent Conference for Relationships among the Central Government, the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces in order to lay down the guidelines to be followed in the definition of such special areas.
The Agreement is composed of five Annexes. Annex I lays down numerous definitions. Annex II gives general criteria to be applied when defining the safeguarding areas above-mentioned. Annexes III, IV and V lay down specific criteria to be followed in the definition of safeguarding areas of wells, sources and surface water abstraction installations, respectively.