32% of the coastal waters and lakes analyzed by Legambiente during the Goletta Verde and Goletta dei Laghi 2022 campaigns are "outlawed" in which almost one in three samples were found "polluted or heavily polluted" and subjected to microbiological analyzes in 18 regions and 37 Italian lakes.
55% of the critical points, explains the NGO, "are concentrated in the mouths of rivers, canals and streams: between bad purification and illegal discharges", Italy remains "chronically ill".
There are 387 samples subjected to microbiological analyzes, of which 124 beyond the legal limits for the concentration of intestinal Enterococci and Escherichia coli.
Special supervised, also in this monitoring season - carried out from 20 June to 1 August by over 200 volunteers of the environmental association - mouths of rivers, canals and streams, "the main vehicles with which the pollution caused by poor purification or illegal discharges reaches the sea and lakes: of the 188 'critical points' of this type monitored by Legambiente (out of a total of 387), 103 (55%) were beyond the legal limits. In the remaining 199 points sampled at sea or in lake waters, instead, the measured values exceeded the legal limit only in 21 cases (11%), it was specified during the presentation of the results.
More in detail, 31% of the points sampled by Goletta Verde in the Italian seas (83 out of 261) returned values beyond the legal limits: on average, one polluted point every 91 kilometers of coastline.
Beyond the legal limits, in particular, 55% of the sampled foci, 42% of which were "heavily polluted" according to the judgment of the scientific program of the Goletta Verde.
A demonstration, underlines Legambiente, "of the fact that the dangers of poor or absent purification are the main threat to the health of our seas and that there is still much to be done to recover the system and sewer network deficit".
Over the limits of the law 33% of the points sampled by the Goletta dei Laghi, that is 42 out of 126 samples taken in 37 lakes and distributed in 11 regions.
53% of the samples taken at mouths, canals and critical points (32 points sampled out of 60) were found to be beyond the legal limits allowed for surface and inland waters.
Once again, observes Legambiente, the watercourses that receive illegal discharges not collected or not purified, coming from inadequate or failing plants, are compromised, on which resources must be invested to solve the age-old problem of purification in Italy.