Letters to the Editor - Dear Lake, I admire you for your resilience despite all the damage we have done and continue to do to you - - Varese News

Dear Varese News editorial team,

I read the response given by ALFA regarding the algae bloom phenomenon that I documented in the photos that you were kind enough to publish. For years I have frequented the beautiful body of water of Lake Varese, full of life that can be admired in all its beauty only by boat, sailing along its shores. If he were a person, at the lake, I would tell him: “I admire you for your resilience despite all the damage we have done and continue to do to you.” The reed beds, the meadows of aquatic plants, these days there is a wonderful flowering of water lilies and water lilies, on the side of the Virginia islet, further ahead, you can see the imposing flowering of lotus flowers with their leaves one metre in diameter, which last year, I don't know why, was almost completely absent, and then the fauna, ducks, grebes, coots, swans, herons, birds of prey etc. etc. We are just at the beginning of the heat and already, on Lake Varese, the phenomenon of putrescent algae is very visible and odorous, it is probable that as the heat progresses the phenomenon will increase. ALFA says that the phenomenon is attributable to the natural supply of organic nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. I think it's not that natural. The lake level is high, normal for the season, and I can't understand how a greater supply of rainwater, which in itself does not contain nitrogen and phosphorus, except in very small quantities, can increase the two substances. Such a large amount of rainwater should dilute nitrogen and phosphorus, not increase it. If it increases, I think it means that the origin is due to agriculture. I don't think that when a truly natural agriculture was practiced, 70 or 80 years ago, with crop rotation, to give a correct supply of nitrogen to the agricultural land, or with fertilization with animal waste, without fertilizers that are not coincidentally called chemical, as is done today, there were phenomena of the type visible today. Or, are there still sewage discharges that bring nitrogen and phosphorus with the wastewater? I feel like saying, I'll leave it to the experts to decide, whether the pollution of Lake Varese these days can be defined as natural as ALFA says or instead completely chemical or in any case due to a strong alteration of the natural rhythms especially with regards to the basins of Lake Varese and Lake Comabbio which are so similar and connected through the Brabbia marsh. And I think that it is not the increase in rainwater with nitrogen and phosphorus that determines the phenomenon, but these two substances are already abundantly present in the lake waters and it is only the increase in water temperatures that acts as a detonator for the explosion of harmful algae that remove the little oxygen dissolved in the water. For example, Lake Monate, a few kilometres from the other two lakes, seems to belong to another dimension, with its clear and inviting waters. Anyone with the naked eye can see what a huge difference there is between the two lakes. They say that the shores of Lake Varese are suitable for swimming... as long as it's about staying on it with a boat for the pleasure of a trip, it's okay, as long as you don't have to hold your nose and fill your view with horror with the blue rotting algae, it becomes a bit unpleasant, then taking a bath...

The eutrophication of Lake Varese is there for all to see and it seems that the efforts made to improve its conditions have not even been remotely sufficient to bring it back to an acceptable situation.