A top European court has come down hard on Italy, ruling that it has violated the right to life of 2.9 million citizens living in a toxic waste-polluted area around Naples.
The area is known as the Land of Fires ('Terra dei Fuochi'), due to the dumping and burning of rubbish and toxic waste which has taken place there for decades. Authorities say the Italian mafia gangs known as the Camorra are behind the burning and dumping as they control waste disposal in the area.
Camorra informants have revealed how the racket works, directing police to specific sites where toxic rubbish was dumped.
The European Court of Human Rights has given the government two years to address and monitor the contamination and the resulting health problems.
The binding judgement from the Strasbourg-based court confirmed that increased rates of cancer and groundwater pollution had been recorded in the area of 90 municipalities.
The court found that Italian authorities had known about the pollution problem since 1988 but failed to address it and had not done what was necessary to protect residents' lives.
Residents have long complained about adverse health effects from the dumping, which has poisoned underground wells used to irrigate the farmland that provides vegetables for much of Italy’s centre and south.
Over the years, police have sequestered dozens of fields because their irrigation wells contained high levels of lead, arsenic and the industrial solvent tetrachloride.
Authorities say the contamination is due to the Camorra’s multibillion-dollar racket of disposing of toxic waste, mainly from industries in Italy’s wealthy north that ask no questions about where the garbage goes as long as it’s taken off their hands - for a fraction of the cost of
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