Lake Garda Water Level and Plant Issues: Institutional Responses Analyzed

More attention, but practically little progress, has been made regarding the two major issues affecting the Lake Garda ecosystem: the massive plant proliferation and the regulation of the lake’s water levels.

Reactions and institutional meetings

There is disappointment in the words of Mayor Umberto Chincarini after two separate meetings, convened respectively by the Provincial Councilor for the Environment and the Prefect of Verona.
“The only positive point is that finally the political-administrative machinery has started talking about the issue,” says the mayor, “but it’s clear that it will take a long time to change a situation that has become such partly due to the disinterest of institutions.”
The first meeting was held at the Province headquarters, convened by the Environment Councilor Camillo Pilati.
This followed the initiative launched by Chincarini himself a month earlier in Peschiera.
“As for the working group,” the mayor clarified, “it was attended by, along with Verona, the Environment Councilors of Brescia and Mantova, as well as the mayors of Peschiera and Sirmione, the municipalities most affected by the consequences of these issues:
the goal is for representatives of entities directly involved with the Garda basin to become part of the ministerial commission that sets the limits within which the lake level must be regulated.”

The Prefect of Verona, on the other hand, convened the Water Magistrate of Venice, overseeing those of Verona and Mantova, along with the Garda mayors.
The topic was the tempest of last November, which caused over half a billion euros in damages along the Garda coast, exacerbated by excessively high water levels.

Giampietro Mayerle, appointed a few months ago as Water Magistrate in Venice, acknowledged the situation that occurred and assured that such an incident will not happen again.
“A certainly positive attitude, but it will not contribute to changing the real cause of the regulation of levels, which so far has only served the interests of the farmers of the Mantova Consortium,” snaps Chincarini.
“The more water there is in Garda, the more the Consortium profits: this is a fact because water used for agricultural consumption is not charged per consumption, but per module and per field, and it is not always charged in full.”

“This is the real issue to be resolved,” insists the mayor, “without harming farmers but recognizing that water is a resource for everyone.”
Are these problems solvable?
“Unfortunately, no: the garbage scows to remove algal buildups are still not available, and the Region has not allocated funds for collection, but we must understand that the State does not provide for this, and solutions and resources must be found by local institutions, Municipalities, Province, and Region.”

Giuditta Bolognesi