Pollution:more than a third of Italian seas and lakes are out of compliance

Out of 265 water samples collected this summer in 15 Italian coastal regions, 37% were found to exceed legal limits in terms of microbiological pollution.Overall, in the seas of the Bel Paese, more than one point in three is therefore polluted.The percentage, which is equivalent to one polluted point every 76 km of coast, is up compared to 36% in 2023 and 31% in 2022.This was made known by the environmentalist association Legambiente, through the Goletta verde and Goletta dei laghi 2024 campaigns.As regards lake basins, out of 129 samplings carried out in 39 lakes in 11 Regions, 33% were found to be above the legal limits, an increase compared to 23% last year.Looking at seas and lakes overall, on the almost 400 points sampled in 19 Regions, 36% was therefore “over limit".

“Italian seas and lakes are not in excellent health”. As Legambiente is the title of the press release describing the latest campaigns Goletta Verde and Goletta dei Laghi.The studies were presented yesterday, Tuesday 13 August, in Rome, and were carried out with the main partnerships of CONOU, Novamont, and the media partnership of Nuova Ecologia, and with ANEV and Renexia.The sampling was conducted with the help of over 200 volunteers, and involved a total of 394 points between seas and lakes.Second Legambiente “river mouths, canals and waterways that flow into the sea or lake” would be confirmed as “critical points”.Almost half of the total withdrawals (185 out of 394) were in fact carried out at the mouths of the rivers, and of these, about 60% (109 out of 185) was found to be above the limit pollution threshold;specifically, 44% of the findings were judged to be "heavily polluted", and 16% were found to be "polluted".On the other hand, "the results of the samples taken in lake and marine waters are better, both in areas with a greater influx of swimmers and near critical points", judged negatively in only 14% of cases (30 out of 208).As regards the 265 maritime surveys, Legambiente judged the 25% of the samples “heavily polluted”, and 12% “polluted”.On the lake side, however, the 28% were "heavily polluted", and 5% "polluted".

From the framework provided by Legambiente, In short, more than a third of the waters analyzed were found to be out of order.The problem of water pollution is also linked to other issues which, as Legambiente reports, range from the climate emergency to the energy crisis.Furthermore, it brings with it further complications, as in the case of health alarms registered in numerous regions of the Bel Paese.After all, in each region of Italy in which surveys were carried out to search for PFAS, perfluoroalkyl substances produced by industries and associated with numerous pathologies, they were found.In Veneto, the region most affected by the PFAS emergency, almost 4,000 people would have died to cause of the substances, subsequently also detected in Lombardy And Piedmont.To them was then added the Tuscany, where PFAS have been found in the same waterways.

[by Dario Lucisano]