AGI – The excellence of Italian bathing waters has also been confirmed in 2024. On the basis of the monitoring activities of the National Environmental Protection System, the classification of the stretches of coast used for bathing has been updated. The results show that 5,090 km of marine sections (95.6% of the monitored coast) are included in the class of “excellent” qualitythe highest foreseen by the European classification system.
If we also add the sections with a “good” classification (153 kilometres, equal to 2.9% of the total) we arrive at 98.5%. Furthermore, 32 km (0.6%) fall into the “sufficient” quality class, 44 km into “poor” quality (0.8%). The kilometers of coastline in “excellent” quality reach very high percentages in each region, with peaks above 98%. in Puglia (99.7%), Friuli Venezia Giulia (99%), Sardinia (98.4%) and Tuscany (98.2%).
The differences in values close to or above 90%, which in all regional areas demonstrate the excellent quality of our bathing water, are also attributable to the specific characteristics of the monitored coasts. Similar percentages emerge for the quality of bathing water in lakes and rivers: out of the 662 km on which monitoring takes place, 630 km are bathed in water of excellent quality, equal to 95.2% of the total monitored.
Twenty km are of good quality (3.1%), 6 km of sufficient quality (0.9%), 1 km of poor quality (0.2%). These are now consolidated data, which confirm what was found in previous years, the result of the surveillance and control activity carried out by the environmental agencies, which carry out monitoring in most of the regions.
Over the course of 2023, the SNPA took around 26 thousand sea water samples and over 2,300 samples of water from rivers and lakes, for a total of more than 28 thousand samplings. There are two microbiological parameters on the basis of which the swimmability of the water is evaluated, the concentrations of Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci. Overall, there are 4,710 areas on which monitoring is carried out.
At a European level, Italian waters are better than the average of EU countries, based on data processed by the European Environment Agency. The classification in force this bathing season is based on the monitoring campaigns carried out in the previous four years and is the one that is also communicated to the European Environment Agency. The sampling then continues throughout the current bathing season, having already started several weeks ago.
The results are published on the websites of the individual Arpas and on the Water portal of the Ministry of Health. If the legal limits are exceeded, the results are transmitted to the local authorities for the issuing of temporary bathing bans. The monitoring and classification work carried out by the SNPA arises from the European directive on the management of the quality of bathing water, from the legislative decree transposing the community directive and from the implementing decree of 30 March 2010.
To protect the health of bathers, the Harps also carry out surveillance monitoring for potentially toxic organisms (cyanobacteria, algae such as Ostreopsis ovata) both in marine and lake waters, preparatory to the possible adoption of restrictive measures in the conditions established by law. Furthermore, the environmental agencies also carry out extraordinary sampling in case of anomalies, for example the presence of foams and anomalous colours, with investigations also aimed at ascertaining any chemical contamination (surfactants and hydrocarbons).
