Drought levels in Ticino: what is banned at levels 1, 2 and 3

During the summer of 2026 several Ticino municipalities introduced drought levels, the scale used to limit drinking water consumption when springs run low. The first thing to know is who decides: not the canton, but the individual municipality or the company running the water network. That is why the rules are not identical from one municipality to another, and anyone looking for information should check their own municipality's or utility's website.

The scale has three levels of increasing severity. The logic is the same everywhere: non-essential outdoor uses go first, then productive domestic uses, and finally everything that is not direct consumption.

What changes at each level

At level 1 the first bans take effect. In the Lower Mendrisiotto, for instance, the water service banned washing cars and forecourts and filling swimming pools, including inflatable ones. Garden watering remained possible at most three times a week, on alternating days according to house number: odd numbers on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, even numbers on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

At level 2 the restrictions widen. In Lumino, which adopted the strictest measures as early as 24 July, washing vehicles, roads, forecourts, terraces and roofs is banned, along with watering lawns and filling swimming pools. Watering trees and shrubs remains possible twice a week, on Monday and Thursday for even house numbers and on Tuesday and Friday for odd ones. Vegetable gardens and fruit trees may still be watered.

Level 3 means a near-total ban on outdoor use of drinking water, including watering vegetable gardens and fruit trees. At that point only domestic consumption and fire protection remain.

Breaches are not without consequences. Lumino's regulations provide for fines of up to ten thousand francs.

In recent weeks the scale has been applied in several regions of the canton, from the Mendrisiotto to the Bellinzona area, with municipalities moving from level 1 to level 2 within a few weeks. The measure concerns mains drinking water and not abstraction from watercourses, which follows separate rules and is restricted by the canton.