Athird of Italian seas and lakes are illegal due to pollution, Legambiente's 39th annual Goletta Verde and 20th annual Goletta dei Laghi surveys said Tuesday.
    Pollution, poor sanitation, and the climate crisis are increasingly threatening Italian seas and lakes, said the environmental group's summer campaigns.
    Of 388 samples taken in coastal and lake waters in 19 regions by over 200 volunteers from the environmental association's regional and local branches, 34% exceeded legal limits, or one sample out of three.
    Specifically, 35% of the sites sampled by Goletta Verde were polluted or heavily polluted, with an average of one site every 80 kilometers; for lakes, 30% exceeded legal limits.
    The situation was better for samples taken directly from the sea or lake waters, i.e., in areas far from estuaries or discharges, where only 15% of the sites sampled exceeded legal limits (30 out of 200).
    The average surface water temperature in the Mediterranean reached a record high in the last ten years, reaching 25.4 degrees Celsius in June and July, the warmest since 2016.
    Fifty-four percent (101 out of 188) of river mouths, canals, and streams flowing into the sea or lake were found to be polluted or heavily polluted.
    Fifty-six percent, not monitored by the competent authorities and therefore unsuitable for swimming, had a public beach near their mouths.
    Legambiente emphasized the need to "urgently approve a national plan for the protection of coastal and inland waters, allocate more resources to modernize purification plants, increase inspections by Regions, ARPA, and Municipalities at critical points, and improve management of inland waters."
   

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