32% of the coasts of Italian seas and lakes are polluted by faecal coli. In practice, every 78 kilometers of the sea coast of Beautiful country there is a section soiled by sewage (here the updated map). This is the balance sheet for this year of Goletta Verde and Goletta dei Laghi, the Legambiente initiatives which monitor the state of our waters during the summer. The two boats, supported by over 200 local volunteers, traveled the Mediterranean coast from Genoa to Trieste and those of 40 lakes.
In hundreds of places they have taken water samples and had them analyzed, to detect the presence of Intestinal enterococci and Escherichia coli. The typical faecal bacteria that end up in the sea from the sewers, when the purifiers don’t work, or aren’t there at all. Which in Italy still happens for 44% of sewage discharges. Between sea and lakes, samples were taken in 387 points. Those outlawed were 124, 32%. At sea, the Goletta Verde made water withdrawals in 262 points, 49% at the mouths and 51% at sea. 36% of the points on the sea coast resulted beyond the legal limits: 30% were judged “heavily polluted”, while 6% received a judgment of “Polluted”.
On average, one outlawed section was discovered every 78 kilometres. Out of the 40 lakes, samples were taken in 125 points: 48% at the mouth of watercourses, 52% offshore. 23% of the samples resulted beyond the legal limits, 29 out of 125. Only in 15% of the points visited by the Goletta verde volunteers was the information sign on water quality seen, which has been mandatory by law for many years. In 73% of the mouths analyzed there was no sign indicating the criticality of the point and the consequent ban on bathing. “Maladepuration – said Stefano Ciafani, president of Legambiente – remains a chronic emergency in our country. In addition to threatening the sea, lakes and biodiversity, it will cost hundreds of millions of euros in the coming years, due to the payment of fines that Europe will not forgive us“.
Legambiente, on the occasion of the presentation of the Gulette data, made three requests to the government: immediately appoint a new purification commissioner, to build the missing plants and avoid European fines; accelerate the pace of new protected areas, to reach the goal of 30% of the territory protected by 2030; release the authorizations for 72 offshore wind projects along the coasts of Sicily, Sardinia, Puglia, Lazio, Calabria, Emilia-Romagna and Molise. “This year, on board the Green Schooner, we talked about the potential of these clean sources, denouncing at the same time their many delays and blockages – commented Katiuscia Eroe, energy manager of Legambiente -. And we have rarely found opposition to wind power from of people”. Le Golette has been supported by a number of companies and associations from green economy: Conou, Novamont, Anev and Renexia. The latter, a wind power company of the Toto group, has announced that in October it will present the project for a mega floating wind farm in the Strait of Sicily, off the coast of Mazara del Vallo, to the Ministry of the Environment for authorisation. A 9 billion euro and 2.8 gigawatt plant, which could provide electricity to 3.4 million families.
#map #Goletta #Verde #polluted #Italian #coasts