Italy water quality report: 34% of sea and lake samples exceed pollution limits

Legambiente’s Goletta Verde and Goletta dei Laghi 2026 campaigns report that 34% of 391 water samples across 19 Italian regions exceed legal pollution limits. The situation for lakes is particularly concerning, marking the worst results in seven years. Critical areas include river mouths, where 54% of samples were found to be polluted or heavily polluted.

A primary driver of this pollution is inadequate wastewater treatment. Data from the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security indicates that 514 urban areas, serving over 14 million people, are discharging non-compliant sewage. This has led to four European Union infringement procedures, costing the country hundreds of millions of euros in fines.

Other environmental concerns reported include the spread of the invasive blue crab along the Po River, driven by drought, and localized issues such as fish concentration at Rome’s EUR Lake due to low oxygen and high temperatures. In Calabria, authorities clarified that recent sea foam sightings were due to natural marine dynamics rather than microbiological pollution. Additionally, an industrial fire at a waste collection center in San Giuseppe Vesuviano has prompted air quality monitoring.