Lake Garda Water Quality-It’s As Clean As It Looks

Wow! The hot weather has arrived and it seems like it’s settled in for the duration. The great thing about Lake Garda is that when it gets too hot, there’s always the lake to cool you down.

The lake water is crystal clear and clean, the perfect tonic after a busy day of sightseeing on Italy’s largest and most beautiful lake. Beaches take up 45km of the 158km coastline of Lake Garda, so you are never too far away from one, which means you can cool off when ever you feel the need.

A day on the beach is one of my favourite things to do on Lake Garda and third on the list of the Tourist Co-Op of Valtenesi.

Sometimes I get asked about the Lake Garda water quality, to be honest usually from Italians, foreign visitors seem more trusting that it’s as clean and fresh as it looks and feels. Anyway, a recent article by the Giornale di Brescia‘s Summer Garda magazine, proved just how clean the waters of Lake Garda are and that it really is one of the finest bodies of water for swimming and recreation.

“Clear blue and most importantly, clean waters. In the run up to a new season of dips and dives, Lake Garda is presenting it’s bathing waters in an excellent state of health, free from any kind of pollution and therefore perfect for taking a swim or enjoying a few challenging hours with water sports.

What is more, the good health of Lake Garda was not certified by tour operators, but by results of regular analyses carried out by the local health authority of Brescia (ASL), which performs checks every 15 days during the bathing season (the checks are carried out on a monthly basis throughout the rest of the year), by sampling water in 55 monitoring points along the entire shoreline of the Brescia area of Lake Garda.

The water samples taken are then examined in the public health laboratory of the same ASL, in order to guarantee unquestionable certification for residents and tourists. The legislation established 1 May as the start of the bathing season and the end of September as the end, and news of the quality of bathing water is therefore published in these three months.  You can access the official list of all the beaches monitored as they are listed in the Municipalities, where they are found by going to the ASL website, aslbrescia.it, and clicking on the banner ‘Balenazione laghi‘ – Bathing in the lakes. There you can see the hygiene-health score for each place, ie fit for bathing/not fit for bathing.

The samples are taken close to the shore in the ways provided by the law. Visual examination is performed on the transparency of the water, chemical-physical analyses measuring PH and dissolved oxygen, microbiological analyses on bacteria present and micro algae monitoring. The bathing waters are literally passed before a microscope to safeguard the health of the residents and millions of tourists who stay around Garda every summer.  You can enjoy the waters of the lake as you prefer, by swimming, diving, taking a dpi, sailing, surfing, rowing water skiing ….

You just need to follow a few simple rules governed by common sense; do not swim after eating and enter the water gradually after sunbathing. Garda has the characteristics of an Alpine basin – cold deep waters – and sudden change in temperatures after long exposure to the sun can be dangerous. Also, it is a good idea to find out about the nature of the environment where you are (depth of the water and any currents). It is also better to have a companion with you in the water if you intend to swim far out”…….Giornale Di Brescia.