Consequences of Italian Colonialism...

The Waste Crisis in Campania, Italy
By Lucie Greyl, Sara Vegni, Maddalena Natalicchio, Salima Cure and Jessica Ferretti

ABSTRACT

From 1994 to early 2008, the region of Campania in south-west Italy existed under a formal State of Emergency, declared due to the saturation of regional waste treatment facilities. There is growing evidence, including a World Health Organisation (WHO) study of the region, that the accumulation of waste, illegal and legal, urban and industrial, has contaminated soil, water, and the air with a range of toxic pollutants including dioxins. A high correlation between incidences of cancer, respiratory illnesses, and genetic malformations and the presence of industrial and toxic waste landfills was also found. The Government has been unable to resolve this crisis, adopting measures that have only increased public unrest, exacerbating the conflict. Local communities continue to organise and protest, risking arrest in order to be heard by a Government that has so far excluded them from decisionmaking processes. Meanwhile the management of waste has worsened: from the failure to separate dry from wet waste and the resultant inability to produce compost (necessary for the regeneration of contaminated land) to the continued production of the inaccurately named “ecoballs” that have continued to accumulate due to delays in the construction of incinerators. These delays have necessitated the creation of new stocking areas, the re-opening of old landfills and the creation of new ones. Although Illegal waste management is currently one of the most urgent environmental issues in Italy, public opinion and the media remain silent on the matter.

Source: http://www.ceecec.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/CAMPANIA_FINAL_19-05.pdf