The Spöl or Aqua Granda is an Italian and Swiss river and is a right tributary of the Inn. The source of the river is near Corno di Campo in the

Province of Sondrio The province of Sondrio (), also known as Valtellina (the major valley of the province) is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its provincial capital is the city of Sondrio. As of 2024, it has a population of 179,165. History The prov ...

in Italy. It flows northeast past Livigno and into Lago di Livigno. It exits the lake at the Italian/Swiss border and flows northwest through Parc Naziunal Svizzer before emptying into the Inn near

Zernez Zernez is a village and a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Engiadina Bassa/Val Müstair Region in the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Graubünden. On 1 January 2015 the former municipalities of Lavin and Susch ...

. Despite rising in Italy, the river is a tributary of the Inn, and the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

, rather than of the Po. In other words, its valley is on the northern side of the Alpine watershed. In this area geographical and political boundaries do not coincide. Due to an international treaty, an

artificial lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

, Lago di Livigno, was created by Engadiner Kraftwerke in the 1960s, with a

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

on the border. Despite indemnisation, not all inhabitants were willing to leave this part of the valley. The

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

has a capacity of . Its minimum and maximum water levels above sea level are at and respectively. Since its construction, this lake had been off-limits for any activity, such as wind-surfing or rowing, until the summer of 2005, when Italy's National Rowing team was authorized to train on the lake. The same international treaty allowed another electricity company to catch the waters of Aqua Granda and other tributaries above a certain elevation and to transport it through a tunnel to the

artificial lakes Artificiality (the state of being artificial, anthropogenic, or man-made) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring nature, naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Co ...

of Cancano, in Val Fraele, on the other side of the watershed. This has decreased the water level on the river dramatically, with some parts of it left without water, causing strong but ineffective protests by the local population. Nowadays this river is popular for

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

, virtually the only other use which can be made of it.

References

External links

Livigno City Council

Livigno Tourist Office
Rivers of Italy Rivers of Lombardy Rivers of the Province of Sondrio Rivers of Switzerland International rivers of Europe Rivers of Graubünden Zernez {{switzerland-river-stub