THE NAPLES GARBAGE CRISIS: A CASE STUDY IN SOUTHERN ITALIAN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NAPLES 000119

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TAGS: SENV PGOV PREL CASC TBIO IT
SUBJECT: THE NAPLES GARBAGE CRISIS: A CASE STUDY IN SOUTHERN ITALIAN
PARALYSIS, WITH SOME SIGNS OF HOPE

REF: NAPLES 57

Sensitive but unclassified - handle accordingly.


1. (SBU) Summary: Although the accumulation of garbage in
Italy's Campania region has declined significantly since it grew
to crisis proportions earlier this year, continued national and
even international press coverage have made it a symbol of
everything that is wrong with the Italian South: ineffective
public services, failed leadership, lack of civic
responsibility, and entrenched organized crime. While
politicians continue to argue and blame each other, Naples
Prefect Pansa, the government's Waste Commissioner, has
identified new dump sites and landfills that, when opened,
should bring relief. An incinerator in Acerra should begin
operating in 2008, and will also contribute to a solution. A
U.S. Navy assessment of health risks to its personnel in the
region is being undertaken, and will examine how long-term
contamination may have affected the air, water and soil quality
(note: close hold). Post will continue to monitor the situation
closely as our warden message on potential health hazards
expires December 31. End summary.


2. (U) While the waste emergency in Campania is not as severe
as it was several months ago (reftel),it has not yet been
resolved. Trash goes uncollected for days and sometimes weeks
in some parts of Naples and outlying suburbs and towns. As
landfill space has become scarcer, some 300 to 500 metric tons
of waste have accumulated in Naples Province alone, according to
media reports. One report indicated that, were the garbage
bales to be piled end to end, they would stretch from Naples to
Scotland, while another predicted it would take fifty years to
incinerate just the current accumulation. Regarding the
separate issue of sewage treatment, one former Naples academic
who now lives in the U.S. told the CG it is sheer luck that the
city has not had a cholera epidemic in years.


3. (U) On November 13, Pol-Econoff and Econ specialist toured
some of the affected areas. Particularly hard-hit by the crisis
is suburban Pozzuoli, just west of Naples, where garbage piles
stretch as long as 200 meters. At one site, Roma children
picked through a five-foot high heap; at another, smoke billowed
from a massive pile -- despite a huge sign announcing "dumping
prohibited." Other areas choked with refuse include the Naples
neighborhoods of Fuorigrotta and Bagnoli (near the NATO base),
and several roads running on the ocean side of Mt. Vesuvius not
far from the archaeological site of Herculaneum. Interestingly,
there are no piles of uncollected trash in most tourist areas,
in the Chiaia neighborhood where the American Consulate is
located, or in Posillipo, the upscale neighborhood where
Regional President Bassolino lives.


4. (SBU) Residents of some of the worst affected areas have
staged several demonstrations over the past few weeks, some to
protest that the garbage has not been collected, and some to
object to the possible establishment of new dumps in their
towns. As foreshadowed in reftel, a number of local mayors have
opposed new dumps. Following increasing media attention, on
November 7, Prime Minister Prodi called several local
authorities to Rome to try to broker an agreement. The next
day, Naples mayor Rosa Iervolino privately expressed her
frustration to the CG, noting that both politics and geography
were hindering a solution. Naples does not have much open space
nearby, she said, "and I can't dump the garbage into the sea!"
Later on November 8, a site near a cemetery in the city's
Poggioreale district was selected as a new city dump. Yet
although Iervolino acknowledged that the northern Italian city
of Brescia successfully converted trash into energy, there is
apparently no imminent plan to copy this model in Naples.


5. (SBU) In July, Prodi appointed Naples prefect Alessandro
Pansa to be the new Commissioner for the Waste Emergency,
replacing Guido Bertolaso, who continues in his role as national
Director of Civil Protection. A member of Pansa's team (a
nuclear waste specialist from Italy's Geological Survey) told us
November 15 that he is optimistic the waste problem will be over
soon, though this view is not widely shared by all observers.
Two new major landfills in Caserta and Avellino (the former "a
done deal," the latter strongly expected) should mean an end to
the space problem, he said. In addition, a modern incinerator,
designed to convert non-toxic waste into energy, should be
completed in Acerra in 2008. Many of the bales of waste that
have been through processing plants and stored temporarily
around the region will be deposited into some of Campania's
caves, and in some instances covered with cement.


6. (U) Naples' recycling program (established two or three years
ago) is not working well. Most politicians with whom we have
discussed the issue bemoan the fact that Italians, in particular

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Southern Italians, do not share the discipline and civic
responsibility of their northern European counterparts.
However, even those who do attempt to recycle may be doing so in
vain, according to the waste expert. Glass, cardboard and
metal, which are in demand, get recycled, but the paper and
plastic that many Neapolitans work to separate often get mixed
back in with the rest of the garbage because recycling them is
not economically viable. Mayor Iervelino asked the CG for
possible U.S. interlocutors experienced in large-scale
recycling. As part of the Mission's "green" initiative, the
Consulate General recycles paper, plastic and toner.


7. (U) As for dealing with the "not-in-my-backyard" syndrome,
our contact told us that Pansa's role as Commissioner gives him
the authority (and funding) to issue and enforce decrees. On
November 16, Naples media reported that Pansa had warned local
authorities that if they do not accept their responsibility to
deal with the waste problem, a solution would be forced on them.
Indeed, politics seems to be a greater obstacle to resolving
the problem than geographical or other factors, and reflects a
broader leadership paralysis that extends well beyond the
garbage crisis. Pansa's term as Commissioner expires on
December 31; he will be replaced by Regional President
Bassolino, who has already served as Waste Commissioner, and who
is under indictment for fraud relating to cost and time
over-runs on the incinerator project.


8. (U) The situation is further complicated by finger-pointing
by various political leaders, and ongoing, unsubstantiated
rumors that somehow organized crime is behind the waste crisis.
Our contact in Pansa's office reported that he has not seen
evidence of Camorra involvement, although he had noticed some
"suspicious" people observing the unloading of waste at various
dump sites. Organized crime's links to illegal toxic waste
dumps in the region have been described in annual reports by
leading Italian environmental group Legambiente, as well as in
the recently published best-seller mafia expose "Gomorra." A
major Camorra boss told judges a few years ago that toxic waste
"is like gold" -- one of the most lucrative and less risky
activities for the Camorra. Half of the industrial waste
produced in Italy each year falls into the hands of organized
crime groups who dispose of it illegally for record profits,
according to Legambiente's most recent study.


9. (SBU) The U.S. Commander of Navy Region Europe has
commissioned an assessment, being conducted by Navy experts with
the collaboration of host-country officials, of the health risks
of waste and pollution in the area. (NOTE: This assessment is
sensitive and has not yet been made public, though both the GOI
and local authorities are on board -- please hold close. End
note.) Though prompted by this year's garbage crisis, its focus
will be much larger, and the team will look at the effects of
waste on the quality of soil, water and food throughout the
region. According to members of the assessment team, initial
indications are that the garbage burning, while unpleasant and
possibly dangerous in certain areas, is not likely to be a
serious general health risk. (An ongoing GOI study should shed
more light on this.) A potentially more serious concern is the
effect of decades of improper hazardous waste disposal in
Campania. (The results of a GOI study were presented at an
international conference in September, and should be published
soon.) The key question regarding both trash burning and buried
waste is if there is an overlap between specific local areas of
concern and where Navy employees live or work, something the
assessment team will be focusing on using geospatial data.

COMMENT
--------------


10. (SBU) Despite high-profile media attention (newspapers
continue to call it a "crisis" and an "emergency"),the waste
situation has improved significantly since the summer, and
further progress appears to be in sight, despite the
characteristically inefficient bureaucracy and the tendency of
both politicians and the public to complain rather than to offer
solutions. Most city districts are not overflowing with burning
rubbish, as was the case several months ago. The Department's
warden message, issued earlier this year in response to the more
urgent situation, expires on December 31. Post will continue to
monitor the situation, and will coordinate closely with local
authorities (both health and political) and U.S. military
personnel before making any final recommendation.
TRUHN