Almost 50% of the samples taken by Goletta Verde volunteers along the coasts of Campania were found to be outside the legal limits.
There are serious critical issues in the most at-risk areas such as river mouths, canals and suspicious discharges that reach the sea, but also in some points at sea.
This photograph was taken by Green Schooner, the historic summer campaign of Legambiente that sails the seas in defense of the waters and coasts, now in its 38th edition. Special attention is given to the mouth of the Regi Lagni in Castel Volturno, which has been found to be polluted several times in recent years and also in monitoring carried out several times from May to July.
The water monitoring was presented this morning during a press conference attended, among others, by Mariateresa Imparato, president of Legambiente Campania, Stefania Di Vito, spokesperson for Goletta Verde, Michele Sorrenti, president of LNI Naples, Stefano Sorvino, director of Arpac.
This year, the monitoring by Goletta Verde technicians took place between June 25 and July 3. Of the 32 points monitored in the usual 'citizen science' action that Legambiente implemented in the summer of 2024, 13 points concerned critical areas, such as river mouths, drains and canals, in which one of the points was found to be Polluted, eleven were heavily polluted and one was within the limits.
More comforting is the picture of the 19 points sampled at sea, where the situation is reversed: 16 points are found to be within the legal limits, 1 Polluted and 2 Heavily Polluted, revealing particularly critical situations even at the points at sea.
The overall picture that emerges is that 47% of the points were found to be polluted by untreated wastewater that impacts the health of the ecosystem, tourism and the health of citizens, the remaining 53% of the points were found to be within the limits.
“But only in one point – Legambiente underlines – of those that were found to be outside the legal limits was there a sign prohibiting bathing and this is a risk for the health of citizens”
Below is the detail of the Goletta Verde analyses in the provinces of Caserta, Naples, Salerno and Ischia. In the province of Caserta, two points were beyond the limits: the sea near the mouth of the Savone river, which was found to be polluted, and the point defined as under special surveillance, the mouth of the Regi Lagni, which was heavily polluted.
Of the 14 points monitored in the province of Naples, 4 points are beyond the limits: the mouth of the canal at Licola beach, the sea near the beach about 50 meters to the left of the mouth of the Alveo Volla at San Giovanni a Teduccio, the mouth of the Sarno river and the sea in front of the Rivo San Marco, all sampling points were found to be heavily polluted.
In the province of Salerno, there are 9 that are above the limits: a polluted point at the mouth of Capo di Fiume in Licinella/Torre di Paestum, while the remaining 8 points are all highly polluting, more precisely the mouth of the Regina Minor in Minori, the mouth of the Irno river in Salerno on the Tafuri seafront, the mouth of the Picentino river in Torre Picentina, the mouth of the Asa torrent between via mar Jonio and Lungomare Magazzeno, the mouth of the Tusciano, the mouth of the discharge channel in Marina di Eboli and the mouth of the stream at via Poseidonia 441 in Laura.
In Ischia there are four sampling points, and in all of them the results of the analyses were within the legal limits.
Even though the mouths are the most critical point due to the lack or absence of purification and according to the law they should not be suitable for bathing, very often – Legambiente underlines – we find that they are the points where bathing is concentrated even by the most fragile groups of the population, such as children and the elderly, who take advantage of the waters that come from the mouth to bathe, in other cases the waters of the mouths must be crossed on foot by immersing one's legs. Furthermore, near the mouths there are often free beach areas used by bathers anyway.
“Unfortunately, the Campania coasts suffer from the same critical issues that we encountered in the previous stages of Goletta Verde’s journey,” says Stefania Di Vito, spokesperson for Goletta Verde. “The results of the analyses carried out both at the mouths of the rivers and at sea show that the Italian purification system has been suffering for many years, and the institutions are still unable to remedy this situation.”
“This year too, Goletta Verde’s analyses have confirmed the criticality of some points that historically are outside the legal limits – underlines Mariateresa Imparato, president of Legambiente Campania. On the other hand, ARPAC data on the functionality of purification plants and on unpurified discharges also confirm that important interventions to adapt or build new purification sewerage infrastructures are still necessary”.
Article published on 15 July 2024 - 15:00
