The current European policies on environment and health do not have merely a monitoring and control purpose, but they have also the aim of creating an integrated management system that must take into consideration health risk prevention, the provision of information to the public and public participation in the decision making process.
The intent is to get citizens involved in the promotion of environmental improvement actions and consequently to obtain positive effects on health, on the economy and on national development.
According to these policies, the Ministry of Health promoted “Portale Acque” to improve the information system and to create a network of public information which presents the quality analysis results in a clear and coherent way.
This initiative offers the actors involved in water treatment (namely Districts, Provinces, States and the EU) useful and technologically advanced support and to the citizen, real-time information on water-related topics and safety.
“Portale Acque” has four main sections each of which can be explored by the citizen in greater depth: thermal water, mineral water, drinking water, bathing water. The first three sections are under construction, while the bathing water section has already been completed and published.
In the Bathing water section of the Portal, it is possible to easily access real-time information about Italian bathing water quality. Through a simple graphical understanding, using the ortho Google Maps, users may verify whether there are areas suitable for bathing activity on a particular stretch of beach of the Italian coast. They may also learn of any prohibitions due to monitoring results during the bathing season. Users can also view any additional environmental information about all bathing areas, such as classification, bathing water profiles, specific risk etc. The citizens also have an active role, because they have the possibility of giving and receiving information about the bathing areas as well as access to specific national and international documentation.
