Now it's been turned into yet another dumping ground for waste and a place to burn trash. Criminals like to burn waste both to rid traces of where it comes from and to make room for more waste.
He pointed to heaps of fabrics from clothes-making factories, industrial textiles, construction material from illegal building sites. For Tosti, the failure of the compost project illustrates a larger problem: The failure to manage the waste and recycle it, reuse it, reduce it. In other words, failure to create a sustainable cycle. He blamed the national and regional governments and Italy's political parties for not doing nearly enough to clean up the garbage and contamination, stop the illegal bonfires of waste and push ahead with recycling.
He kept walking through the failed composting facility. On the edge of Orta di Atella, Tosti led the way around a spot where trash is dumped with impunity. Signs warn that people will be fined for dumping trash and there are even surveillance cameras set up to catch people. But none of that deters scofflaws from unloading their rubbish. He scanned the trash. There were the usual suspects: Textiles, industrial waste, furniture, appliances. Stockpiled trash is still there 14 years later, covered by a shell of dirt and concrete overgrown with grasses and shrubs.
The term Terra dei Fuochi was first used in in a report on the activities of the ecomafia by Legambiente, a national environmental group. In the years that followed, Italy was shocked by a series of revelations from police investigations and repentant camorra members turned informants about the burial of toxic industrial waste in the plains of Campania and other environmental crimes.
Alarm bells rang out in Italy's government as the public outcry grew. One protest in Naples drew about , people. Scientists too got into action and initial reports were alarming as they cited high levels of cancer, contaminated soils and groundwater and high levels of carcinogenic dioxins.
The revelations and public outcry led to dozens of arrests, prosecutions and convictions. The police work goes on, as do court cases. These were dark years for Campania indeed, as the Italian media ran articles about the environmental mess.
Now I have another business. It pays more and the risk is less. It was estimated that in alone, illegal disposal of garbage and toxic waste generated The success of the waste-hauling operation is predicated on a steady supply of customers willing to go along with the Camorra. In many cases, the Camorra did not have to actively seek out willing partners, nor strong-arm companies to use their services. The businesses that went along with the Camorra paid a tax to the Mob to assist with bribery of public officials.
The Camorra then bribed officials to close incinerators, forcing more refuse to be trucked away, and by cornering the market on trucking firms, the Camorra was able to control virtually all the private refuse management in the region.
This is not dissimilar from the way the American Mafia controlled waste hauling in New York City for decades. The region of Campania is the epicenter of the waste crisis. Known as the Land of Fires, from the constant burning of garbage, Campania is one of the most densely populated, yet one of the poorest regions of Italy. The Italian government has identified more than 5, dump sites in an area of 55 communities in the Campania region.
All the dumping of waste, coupled with the fires from burning garbage, have caused a major human health crisis. Starting around , local doctors in the town of Maddaloni, 25 kilometers from Naples, began seeing a dramatic increase of patients coming in with cancer. The types of cancer ranged from rare bone cancers and childhood leukemia to bladder and breast cancers.
The other thing that mystified doctors was the age of patients, which had decreased significantly compared to years past. The town of Acerra, halfway between Naples and Maddaloni, saw a rash of aggressive cancers and farmers with high levels of dioxins in their blood. Cancer rates in Acerra have risen 30 percent while other smaller towns have seen rates increases of up to 47 percent Newcomer, The Italian Cancer Research Institute in Naples found a 47 percent increase in tumors for men in the Naples area compared with the rest of Italy.
The U. Hidden out of sight down dirt tracks in the countryside are vast mounds of illegal and hazardous waste, from broken sheets of asbestos to car tyres and containers of industrial-strength glue, AFP news agency reports.
Periodically set alight, they billow black fumes towards neighbouring towns but locals say the real killer lies in aquifers feeding tomato, cabbage and broccoli crops which are poisoned with chloroform, arsenic and heavy metals. So common has the phenomenon become that the area between Naples and Caserta has been nicknamed the "Land of Fires". According to environmental protection association Legambiente, 10m tonnes of industrial waste were burnt or buried in the zone between and , all trucked in at night.
Toxic waste has been buried in the area for decades, ever since the Camorra branched into the lucrative waste disposal business in the s. Companies paid criminals a fraction of the cost of official waste firms to dump the waste in fields, wells and lakes. Naples rally against mafia pollution. Waste campaigner wins Goldman Prize. From to , she coordinated the translations for treffpunkteuropa. Warning, your message will only be displayed after it has been checked and approved.
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As a part of the Trans-European Networks policy of the EU, the Commission is creating channels of transport and telecommunications As the economic downturn and the swine flu dominate the pages of newspapers, a lot more important issue, for it affects our long term Tuesday 19 May , par Joan Marc Simon.
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