Italy: The river of death

Just a few years ago the shock of the media heaps of garbage left along the streets of the urban centers of Naples and Caserta, from fertile countryside at the foot of Vesuvius, was the foundation of a "war report" about the daily events of Campania and of the surreal its inhabitants. Today there is general media attention to rise instead of the fires the Earth, with its cargo of deadly poisons come from the large industries of the North and buried by the Camorra in the last thirty years; Campania Felix Roman, spilling Nomen Omen of the Latins, so is able to transform into surreal opposite of the original meaning and indicative of its ancient name. But the contamination of soils, subsoils and water resources for more than three decades has transformed a part of the region in the materialization of the degradation apocalyptic concerns not only the land between the provinces of Naples and Caserta (at least 5000 in an area of ​​50 square kilometers with about 2 million inhabitants), but also the Sarno River, which continues to be the most polluted in Italy and, according to some, in Europe.
This small stream (just 24 km long) is perhaps one of the most significant emblems of a downward spiral that makes it look almost paradoxical in their enormity, crimes and outrages committed against a region that once truly happy by nature and Roman ancestry. The picture is even more surreal when compared with the past.







The plain of the Sarno, of exceptional fertility (thanks alluvial-volcanic origin), with natural beauty, landscapes and archaeological sites are unique in the world, has been populated, in fact, since the primeval history, and is described in Strabo's Geography as a wide expanse of 'beautiful fields, "rendered very fertile by the nearby" Mount Vesuvius "(whose top" ashen-looking "greek geographer was rightly assume the existence of volcanic activity, erroneneamente deemed completed) and as home to major ports, including those of Nuceria and Pompeii, crossed by the river "on which you are importing and exporting merchandise." The ancient navigability of Sarno, prior to his departure after the eruption of 79 AD, it seems borne out by some microtoponimi (including the "Port") and local place names such as "Scafati", prompting the Scafe for the transport of goods.
As evidence of their importance, the river water was the subject of ancient religious cults by the local populations, as evidenced by some Pompeian frescoes, including that of the House of Lararium (pictured above), where the god Sarno, with a ' amphora in his hands, is depicted in the act of pouring water into the river, crossed by a boat full of food.
Even in the nineteenth century the plain of the Sarno, despite the presence of numerous wetlands (drained by the Bourbons), appeared as a landscape and developed organic, surrounded by the hills, enlivened by the river, overlooking the gulf of Castellammare and deeply imbued with the presence the many communities that lived there.
Today, in spite of the spring waters of the river are still spotless (in fact feed the Campano Aqueduct), the conditions of the valley in which rivers are very different.






The processes of urbanization, the post-war reconstruction in then, they have grown in the name of the need for economic development in one way, based on industrialization and organization in a functional sense of space, they have in fact profoundly transformed the physiognomy of the landscape. These territorial changes were added, as stated in the Report of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the causes of pollution of the River Sarno (2006), other factors: human activities are not coordinated, improper and / or illegal activities (such as illegal rampant building); un'articolatissima administrative organization (the basin of the Sarno is in fact divided between the provinces of Naples, Salerno and Avellino), which, in fact, every project has hampered the planning unit; serious pollution of river water, mainly due to municipal wastewater abusive, leaks from sewer networks (inadequate compared to the loads to be conveyed), discharges directly into the groundwater, the practice of dispersing blacks wells, percolation from the areas used as landfill but sealed approximate (or, if illegal, not sealed at all), often indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers, the waste by animals (used as fertilizer), and finally to illegal discharges from industries (tanning plants, canneries, papermaking , typographical and other, starting with those of marble and ceramic).






This deadly mixture destructive has inevitably resulted in very serious damage to the territory and population of the Nocera and Sarno: In addition to epidemiological and health problems, in 1997 the World Health Organization report indicated the presence in the area of ​​the river Sarno, an index Mortality from cancer and leukemia 17% higher than in other areas of the world.

Yet, viewed from the top of Chiunzi pass, the landscape of the Plain still looks spectacular, in the boundless expanse of light bounded by the sea and the unmistakable silhouette of the Somma-Vesuvius. But, beyond the evocative visions of the night, the area appears to be a strongly critical and precarious, with difficult prospects for development, given the current conditions.
Something we tried to do in recent years, through the establishment of some parks (National Park of Vesuvius, the Regional Park of the River Sarno and the Regional Park of Mons Lactarius) and the implementation of a series of scrubbers in the vicinity of the most degraded (including Nocera, and Scafati Angri) along the river and its tributaries and Solofrana Cavaiola, trust, since 2008, the coordination of Gen. Roberto jucci appointed High Commissioner to clean up the river Sarno. The Commissioner, however, expired on 31 December 2011, but the political rehabilitation of the river basin is continuing thanks to the signing in 2012 of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Region, Arcadis and the Sarno Basin Authority for the Grand Project "Completion regeneration and recovery of the Sarno River ", a total value of 217.5 million euro, for the safety of the Agro Nocera-Sarno and basin Solofrana, indented under the ROP ERDF CAMPANIA 2007 - , 2013.
In the hope that European funding will follow the river step by step and that insiders act by working directly on the ground and not using outdated sources and surveys, there is therefore only be hoped that the project will actually take off, in definitive ban on infiltration of any kind.