On the basis of the monitoring conducted by the National System for the protection of the environment they result excellent approximately 5,000 of the 5,300 km of marine areas used for bathing, equal to 95.5% of the total. The remaining 2.7% is of good quality (144 km), while the same percentage equal to 0.8% (43 km) is respectively in the sufficient and poor class.
It is the result of microbiological analysis conducted over four years (2019-2022): they are more than 30 thousand i samplings carried out in 2022 throughout the country – mostly by environmental agencies – to assess the quality of bathing water from a sanitary point of view.
The quality of marine bathing waters is generally of a good standard in all regions, with percentages of “excellent” coastline exceeding 85% in each area and with peaks exceeding 99% in two regions (Puglia and Sardinia). The checks also concern lakes and (in a few cases) rivers, where some regions reach 100% excellent waters. At European level, Italian waters are better than the average of the EU countriesbased on data processed by the European Environment Agency.
The control and monitoring work carried out by Snpa, the National System for the Protection of the Environment, stems from the Community Directive 2006/7/EC, which establishes the rules for classifying bathing water into the four quality classes (excellent, good, sufficient and scarce). The microbiological parameters on which the monitoring is based are the concentrations of Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci, bacteria considered indicators of faecal contamination. The percentages shown refer to the total monitored waters, thus excluding those not subject to monitoring, for example stretches of sea that host ports, military servitude or protected areas. For Lombardy and Sicily – where monitoring is carried out by the health system – the available data are expressed only in terms of the number of bathing waters and not of kilometers of coast as for the others.
They have already started for several weeks the 2023 samplings and will continue throughout the summer season. The results of the analyzes are published on the websites of the individual ARPAs and on the portal “Waters” of the Ministry of Health. According to the procedures established by law, the results are transmitted to the local authorities for the issuing of any measures, even temporary ones, useful for preventing health risks, including temporary bathing bans.
To protect the health of bathers, the law also provides for monitoring of surveillance for algal species potentially toxic. In particular, in coastal marine waters, the coastal Arpa with the coordination of Ispra monitor the potentially toxic benthic microalga, Ostreopsis cf. ovata. As far as algal surveillance in lake bathing waters is concerned, cyanobacteria are “specially monitored”: photosynthetic bacteria, producers of oxygen, also called blue or blue-green algae, as their color varies from blue to red to purple . The results on the presence of the various species can be consulted on the websites of the regional agencies in the sections dedicated to bathing waters.