Lake Garda’s Beaches Now Approved as Italy’s Cleanest Water

Lake Garda is the cleanest lake in Italy and Europe. This was asserted last year by the Ministry of Health based on annual analysis results. It is now confirmed with the start of the bathing season. In fact, all 52 beaches monitored by the Azienda sanitaria di Brescia are deemed suitable for bathing.

Analysis results and bathing situation

The first official bulletin from the ASL di Brescia, the Gavardo-Salò socio-health district, “approves” all monitored bathing areas between Sirmione and Limone. In other words, there are no bans on bathing along the Brescia Riviera of Lake Garda. “The analyses have all yielded favorable results,” explain Dr. Angelo Benedetti, head of the facility, and Dr. Messino. “There are no problems either of bacterial or chemical nature.”

This is the result of two series of tests carried out on samples taken in April from 52 points on the lake that correspond to the beaches of the Riviera. “This is undoubtedly a historic achievement that rewards the efforts made in recent years and the scheduled investments in environmental protection,” comments Guido Maruelli, president of the Azienda Garda Uno, which, as a consortium, carried out the works and now manages the systems.

Since 1990 (the year the wastewater treatment plant became operational), bans have gradually decreased until the results were officially announced this week. The efforts to build the circumlacuary collector and subsequently the treatment plant have paid off. But credit also goes to the Riviera municipalities that invested heavily in fixing the sewage networks and connecting them to the collector.

Garda and other lakes’ treatment plant situation

The ecological protection system for Garda, costing nearly 200 billion lire, consists of a circumlacuary pipeline about 130 kilometers long and a treatment plant located in Peschiera. Good news also comes from Lake Idro. The situation there is identical to Garda’s. All 17 beaches are deemed suitable for bathing, as confirmed by the first bulletin released the day before yesterday by the Azienda sanitaria di Brescia.

Here, concerns about pH levels, a parameter that is strictly non-negotiable, have been dispelled. At the end of the 1999 season, issues with the lake’s water “non-bathability” due to pH were completely resolved.