Italian Lakes Face Severe Drought and Pollution, Legambiente Warns

The National Association of Water Consortia (ANBI) reports that major northern Italian lakes are rapidly losing water: Lago Maggiore fell from over 61% to 30.3% fill, Lario from 62.9% to 31.2% and Iseo from 71.4% to 22.9%. Temperatures in the region are 3 °C above average, and marine heatwaves are record‑high.

Legambiente’s “Laghi sotto pressione” study confirms the same trend, noting that lake levels in July were around 40 % for Maggiore, 41 % for Como and 35 % for Iseo. The report also highlights rising surface temperatures, PFAS and pesticide residues, and that two thirds of Italy’s lakes are heavily altered by human activity. Microbiological tests by the Goletta dei Laghi campaign found all samples from Lake Iseo within legal limits, a marked improvement from previous years, though other sites remain “strongly polluted”.

In Lombardy, regional water officer Massimo Sertori warned that the regional water deficit has risen from 36 % to about 40 %, still far below the 2022 crisis levels but prompting reduced irrigation allocations. Legambiente’s ongoing Goletta Verde campaign will visit Calabria from 11‑13 July, combining beach clean‑ups, water‑quality monitoring and a public debate on the contested Messina Strait bridge project.

The combined data underline an acute water‑resource emergency across Italy’s lakes, with implications for drinking water, agriculture, tourism and public health, and call for accelerated national and regional actions on water management and pollution control.