Brussels, 10/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - Italy infringed the right to respect for private and family life of the inhabitants of a district in Campania by failing to settle the “waste crisis” between 1994 and 2009, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Tuesday 10 January.
“The fact remained that the Italian authorities had for a lengthy period been unable to ensure the proper functioning of the waste collection, treatment and disposal service, resulting in an infringement of the applicants' right to respect for their private lives and their homes”, the ECHR found. The case was referred to it by 18 Italian nationals, living or working in Omma Vesuviana, near Naples. They complained that the state had “caused serious damage to the environment in their region and placed their lives and health in jeopardy” by failing to take the necessary measures to ensure the proper functioning of the public waste collection service. The region was placed under a state of emergency for 15 years because of difficulties in removing urban waste. From May 2008, new landfill sites were opened, incinerators were constructed and several tonnes of waste were removed for treatment in Germany. This allowed the state of emergency in Campania to be lifted on 31 December 2009. However, at the height of the crisis, from December 2007 to May 2008, “the applicants had been forced, from the end of 2007 until May 2008, to live in an environment polluted by the piling-up of rubbish on the streets”, the Court states, rejecting the Italian state's argument that the problems were attributable to “force majeure”.
Tonnes of rubbish are regularly piled high in Naples and in Campania because of failures of the waste treatment system. The Neapolitan mafia, the Camorra, has been accused of being responsible for the situation. It is claimed the organisation has infiltrated the lucrative waste management market. In March 2010, the Court of Justice of the EU reproached Italy for not having a network capable of removing the waste in the Naples region (see EUROPE 10092). (LC/transl.rt)