Sea pollution on the Amalfi Coast
SALERNO -- Police in this southern region have seized two purification plants and are allegedly investigating 16 people, including two mayors, on the charges of sea pollution of the local Amalfi coastline, judicial officials announced on Friday
The focus of the investigation is the correct operation of the wastewater treatment plants, so that discharge is not being thrown directly into the sea, with a consequent risk to bathers’ health, amongst many other issues.
A press conference was held on Thursday afternoon with Salerno police, the prosecutor from Corrado Lembo, and Salerno’s harbourmaster, Gaetano Angora. These local authorities reportedly told the press conference that the malfunction of the purification plants had caused an extremely high amount of waste to be dumped in the heart of the Amalfi Coast.
This area of coastline is one of great beauty that is a frequent holiday destination, and is included on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
Among those investigated were the mayor of Praiano Giovanni Di Martino, along with the mayor of the town of Amalfi, Daniele Milano.
According to authorities the malfunctioning plants not only caused environmental damage, but were also posing a huge risk to bathers in the area. The science director of Italian environmental group Legambiente, Giorgio Zampetti, explained that “unfortunately this is not the only case of its kind in Italy, untreated sewage is contaminating many parts of the coast.”
Zampetti carried on with the shocking statistic that there is a polluted area around every 62 kilometres (38.5 miles) of the Italian coastline, or as many as 120 polluted areas – this is based on Legambiente’s 2015 analysis report, which stated that 45 percent of 266 seawater samples had bacterial loads exceeding the limits imposed by law.
According to their report, the coastlines in the regions of Sardinia, Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia are the cleanest in Italy, whilst those of Marche, Abruzzo and Sicily had the highest number of polluted seaside locations. Many of these polluted locations had not even been closed to the public therefore the summer bathers will have been unaware of the threat to their health.
The most common crimes, according to Zampetti, are unlawful practices in the cement cycle, sea pollution caused by inefficient treatment plants, sewage, oil pollution and waste dumping. “In fact some 25 percent of the Italian population lacks an adequate water treatment system,” he observed.
He also added that the pollution was not only damaging Italy’s environment but also its economy, “Italy has incurred two fines from the EU in the past for dumping untreated sewage into its rivers and seas…not even mentioning the fact that pollution heavily impacts tourism, one of our country’s greatest resources.”
In 2014, there were 18,000 people arrested or reported for being involved in illicit activities along the Italian coastline, whilst 4,777 facilities and assets were seized.
ch