There Naval Operational Section of Marina di Carrara, during the execution of the Institute checks carried out within the maritime bathing establishments present within its service district, including the Apuan and Versilia coasts, identified several water collection systems from underground aquifers (so-called wells) built in the absence of any authorization, from which public water was illegally taken.
The operation, called “Aqua Munda” (clean water)was carried out with the collaboration of the Tuscany Region – Civil Engineering Sector.
The construction of water resource extraction plants is governed by specific regulations, including the Environmental Code (Legislative Decree no. 152/2006), with the aim of protecting it and rationalizing its use.
The violation of these rules has repercussions both from a revenue point of view, due to the failure to pay the expected water fee, and from a health point of view regarding the use of water extracted from underground aquifers that differ, in chemical/physical characteristics, compared to the use for which it is intended.
In this context, the financiers shared with the North West Tuscany USL/Public Hygiene and Nutrition Sector the results of the checks carried out for the assessments under their responsibility.
During the checks, the withdrawal of underground water was also found within former Sites of National and Regional Interest, subject to specific reclamation interventions in which withdrawals are absolutely prohibited.
During the operation, the Guardia di Finanza soldiers ascertained administrative violations for over 960,000 euros and discovered the evasion of state property fees for a further 600,000 euros which, overall, will achieve a recovery of over one million for the coffers of the Tuscany region. and a half euros.
The activity has favored an exponential increase, on the part of the bathing establishments, in the requests for regularization of the concessions on the points of derivation of water from underground aquifers (so-called Wells) which will probably have, among the outcomes, the rationalization of the water heritage and the regularization of the expected concession fees, previously paid.
An imaginable consequence deriving from the regularization of pumping was to observe, in some areas, the reduction in consumption and the adaptation of the systems through the installation of withdrawal meters, in order to monitor the effects in the coming years also from a from a geological point of view.
The need to safeguard and respect water resources has been underlined by Directive (EU) no. 2024/1203 on the criminal protection of the environment, dated 11 April 2024 which, although not yet transposed into national law, provides for the marked tightening of sanctions regarding the indiscriminate withdrawal of water by introducing, among the crimes, that of “exhaustion of resources water”.
The activity carried out is part of the tasks entrusted, through competition, to the Corps, to prevent and combat environmental crimes, on land and at sea.
