There is a county in Italy, Campania, which unfortunately has risen in recent years, too many times, to the international honors of the news, for having “chronic cycles” problem in waste management .
There is a European directive, 2004/35 / CE, which implements the principle ” polluter pays”, which specifically regulates damage caused by soil contamination, whose repair remains the responsibility of the person who caused pollution.
There is a Legislative Decree in Italy, the 152/2006 “Testo Unico Ambientale”, which, among other things, provides that in the event that the offender of pollution has not been identified, pubblic administrations are obliged to proceed, in accordance with art. 250 of Legislative Decree 152/2006. In particular, if liable persons are not identifiable and / or does not provide the owner of the site or other interested party, the needed interventions are adopted, pursuant to the combined provisions of Articles 244 and 250, by the territorially competent municipality office and, failing that, by the region (County).
There is a Municipality in Campania, in Caserta Province, Bellona, where there is a factory founded after the 2000s to operate to differentiate waste. It was called ILSIDE, later passed to Jacorossi S.p.A, and today to a company called Gardenia based in Luxembourg, whose owners’ names are not accessible.
Ilside, which over the years has stored different types of waste, from rubber, plastic, asbestos, up to hospital waste, was subject to a first “arson” in 2012 and another, disastrous, last July 2017.
To date, after about 8 months since this last event where highly toxic combustion residues have been “inhaled by the population, deposited on the cultivated land, in superficial and deep waters, the local authorities, responsible for activating the reclamation operations, (deadlines largely expired) are still far from resolving this serious threat to the pubblic healthy and to the ecosystem.
State of the places is an establishment where waste fire residuals are lye on the ground (following arson of 2012 and 2017), partally buried of soil; during rain events, cause soil “movements”, there still are exhalation combustion residuals.
There are a group of citizens, who have tried to assert their rights by asking the institutions to find solution, which, to date, have not only been unheard, but even some of them, even indicted for presumed interruption of public service in the municipal offices , which in reality would never have taken place.
Being an engineer today, means not only protecting the environment applying the criteria of environment sustainability, but also those of social sustainability; for this reason we can not remain silent facing such injustices.
All this happens in Europe, Italy, Campania, Province of Caserta, Bellona Municipality, in the year of the “Lord” 2018.