{"id":39719,"date":"2026-08-12T12:27:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T12:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/39719\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T12:27:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T12:27:03","slug":"switzerland-gives-italy-more-water-from-lake-lugano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/39719\/","title":{"rendered":"Switzerland gives Italy more water from Lake Lugano"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/28d31d98aa19ea88792044535a608e5f35accfcc-91881402.jpg\" width=\"1400\" height=\"1050\" alt=\"More water for Italy: discharge from Lake Lugano temporarily increased\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"sync\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                More water for Italy: discharge from Lake Lugano temporarily increased            <\/p>\n<p>            Keystone-SDA        <\/p>\n<p>        The outflow of water from Lake Lugano to Italy will be increased from the current three to eight cubic metres per second for a period of ten days.\n<\/p>\n<p>            Listen to the article        <\/p>\n<p>            Listening the article        <\/p>\n<p>                Toggle language selector            <\/p>\n<p>                            English (US)                        <\/p>\n<p>                            English (British)                        <\/p>\n<p>            Generated with artificial intelligence.        <\/p>\n<p>        This content was published on    <\/p>\n<p>        August 12, 2026 &#8211; 08:53\n<\/p>\n<p>This will allow more water to flow into Lake Maggiore and into the Italian rice-growing areas near Novara, Lomellina and Milan.<\/p>\n<p>The measure will result in a reduction in the water level of Lake Lugano by a total of around ten centimetres, the Ticino Waterways Authority announced.<\/p>\n<p>It will come into effect immediately for the next ten days and will be closely monitored, the press release added. Once this period has expired, the situation will be reassessed in light of further developments in water levels and taking regional needs into account.<\/p>\n<p>The measure was taken by the Italian-Swiss consultative body responsible for regulating the water level of Lake Maggiore and managing water resources in the catchment area. The body convened for an emergency meeting on Monday at the request of the Italian Ministry of the Environment. Lake Lugano and Lake Maggiore are naturally connected via the River Tresa.<\/p>\n<p>\n    More<\/p>\n<p>    <img src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/siccita.jpg\" width=\"1300\" height=\"867\" alt=\"Two people on a jetty are looking out over a dried-up lake\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        More    <\/p>\n<p>        Climate adaptation\n        <\/p>\n<p>        Sparse rainfall and heatwaves have put Switzerland on drought alert    <\/p>\n<p class=\"teaser-wide-card__excerpt\">\n<p>                        This content was published on                    <\/p>\n<p>                        Jul 28, 2026                    <\/p>\n<p>                Fifty years after the \u201cdrought of the century\u201d, Switzerland is facing into summer 2026 with unusually low water reserves. Some simple measures can prevent critical situations.            <\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"teaser-wide-card__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swissinfo.ch\/eng\/climate-adaptation\/sparse-rainfall-and-heatwaves-have-put-switzerland-on-drought-alert\/91493521\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>            Read more: Sparse rainfall and heatwaves have put Switzerland on drought alert<br \/>\n    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Critical situation on Lake Maggiore<\/p>\n<p>The meeting was called in response to the critical water situation in Lake Maggiore and the downstream rice-growing areas in the regions of Novara, Lomellina and Milan, as well as Italy\u2019s request to examine the possibility of additional water releases from the Ticino hydroelectric reservoirs.<\/p>\n<p>The water level of Lake Maggiore is currently extremely low and, according to the head of the Ticino Waterways Office, is just a few centimetres away from a new record low.<\/p>\n<p>\n    More<\/p>\n<p>    <img src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/618d96eea764addf613c912095c287f8-microsoftteams-image--2--data.png\" width=\"283\" height=\"283\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>    <img src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/d734ffb537e10a60d625602c068c6b47-78495906_highres-data.jpg\" width=\"1300\" height=\"867\" alt=\"cascata in montagna\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        More    <\/p>\n<p>        Climate solutions\n        <\/p>\n<p>        How to prevent conflicts over water in the middle of Europe    <\/p>\n<p class=\"teaser-wide-card__excerpt\">\n<p>                        This content was published on                    <\/p>\n<p>                        Jun 26, 2023                    <\/p>\n<p>                Switzerland wants more water to produce electricity. France and Italy need it for agriculture. How can different needs be reconciled?            <\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"teaser-wide-card__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swissinfo.ch\/eng\/politics\/how-to-prevent-conflicts-over-water-in-the-middle-of-europe\/48614514\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>            Read more: How to prevent conflicts over water in the middle of Europe<br \/>\n    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The report goes on to state that the Ticino cantonal government had already informed the Piedmont region on July 17 that the Swiss side was also affected by a drought warning due to a lack of rainfall. <\/p>\n<p>Water reserves in Ticino\u2019s hydroelectric reservoirs are currently at their lowest levels in the last ten years. The Piedmontese government in Italy had therefore asked neighbouring Ticino to increase the volume of water released into the region.<\/p>\n<p>For this reason, and to ensure the security of the electricity supply, the conditions for additional water releases from the reservoirs do not exist. Furthermore, the Swiss canton\u2019s scope for action is legally restricted, as a large proportion of the water is subject to concessions held by private operators, over which the canton has no direct control.<\/p>\n<p>\n    More<\/p>\n<p>    <img src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7c2525cd954dc2a265797ada801df9ee3324213d-91745091.jpg\" width=\"1400\" height=\"1050\" alt=\"Turin Agricultural Association calls for a state of emergency due to drought\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        More    <\/p>\n<p>        Climate adaptation\n        <\/p>\n<p>        Italy plans to ask Switzerland for water for its farmlands    <\/p>\n<p class=\"teaser-wide-card__excerpt\">\n<p>                        This content was published on                    <\/p>\n<p>                        Jul 15, 2026                    <\/p>\n<p>                The Piedmontese government plans to ask the Swiss canton of Ticino to increase the volume of water supplied to the region.            <\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"teaser-wide-card__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swissinfo.ch\/eng\/climate-adaptation\/turin-agricultural-association-calls-for-a-state-of-emergency-due-to-drought\/91748697\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>            Read more: Italy plans to ask Switzerland for water for its farmlands<br \/>\n    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>+ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swissinfo.ch\/eng\/about-us\/how-swissinfo-produces-news-in-english\/91695684\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">How we produce English news<\/a><br \/>Translated from German, reviewed by an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.swissinfo.ch\/eng\/department\/english-department\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">English Department<\/a> journalist.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>        Articles in this story    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More water for Italy: discharge from Lake Lugano temporarily increased Keystone-SDA The outflow of water from Lake Lugano&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2756,26107,22635,1294,8290,5,869,356,8292],"class_list":["post-39719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-article","tag-beat-swiss-diplomacy","tag-beat-various","tag-environment","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-italy","tag-latest-news","tag-politics","tag-production-type-deepl-autotranslation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}