Lake Garda Under Hydrogeological Risk: High Alert in Garda Municipality

Lake Garda is at risk of hydrogeological instability. At first glance, this news may seem alarming, although it isn’t entirely new, as the concerned municipalities have known about it for some time. Certainly, yesterday morning the regional environmental assessor, the veronese Massimo Giorgetti, officially announced the Hydrogeological Settlement Plan (Piano di assetto idrogeologico, Pai) of the Po basin, which identifies high-risk areas so that disasters like Sarno and Soverato can no longer recur. These are also the names of the two national laws under which regions are required to submit their Pai.

Risk levels and affected areas

“The plan indicates four levels of risk,” explained the assessor, “the first two, R1 and R2, are situations of minimal instability. R3, on the other hand, which corresponds to a high risk with potential loss of human lives and serious injuries, severe damage to buildings, infrastructure, and the environmental patrimony, as well as the destruction of socio-economic activities, is not present in the province of Verona.”

“R3,” continues Giorgetti, “corresponds to an elevated hydrogeological risk, with potential issues for people’s safety, functional damage to buildings, infrastructure, and the population, leading to their inaccessibility, interruption of socio-economic activities, and significant harm to the environmental heritage: it affects Lake Garda, with a particular situation in the Municipality of Garda.”