Terra dei fuochi: a six-party agreement to remove waste from the streets

Headlights on the so-called Terra dei Fuochi: a Cooperation Agreement was signed for the removal of abandoned waste along provincial roads. The initiative involves the Extraordinary Commissioner, the Metropolitan City of Naples, the Province of Caserta, Sapna (Company of the Metropolitan City), Gisec (which manages plants in the province of Caserta) and ARPAC, which have decided to join forces to provide a coordinated response to the environmental emergency.

The cooperation agreement sanctions the joint commitment of six institutional actors to organically tackle the problem of abandoned waste along the provincial roads in the provinces of Naples and Caserta, in the heart of the so-called 'Terra dei Fuochi'. Present at the signing ceremony at the headquarters of the extraordinary commissioner structure in Caivano were the extraordinary commissioner for infrastructure and social redevelopment, prefect Fabio Ciciliano, metropolitan mayor Gaetano Manfredi, the president of the Province of Caserta, Anacleto Colombiano, the sole administrator of SAPNA S.p.A. - Sistema ambiente Provincia di Napoli, Alberto Boccalatte, the chairman of the board of directors of G.I.S.E.C. S.p.A. - Gestione impianti e servizi ecologici casertani, Vincenzo Caterino, and the director general of ARPAC-Agenzia regionale per la protezione ambientale della Campania, Luigi Stefano Sorvino.

The systematic presence of abandoned waste along the provincial roads has for years been a serious degradation factor and a real risk to public health: this agreement is intended to activate a structured and traceable operational system.

The agreement clearly defines the responsibilities of each signatory. The extraordinary commissioner will coordinate the entire action, identifying the intervention priorities, and will also guarantee financial coverage from the FSC resources available in the special commissioner's account and approve the financial statements presented by the implementing subjects. The Metropolitan City of Naples will ensure the administrative connection with Sapna and the support of its technical structures for the provincial road system. Similarly, the Province of Caserta, will play the same role of liaison with Gisec for its territorial scope. Sapna and Gisec will ensure the reception, treatment and delivery of undifferentiated municipal waste from the removal operations to duly authorised facilities. Both companies will ensure full traceability of the flows, the compilation of waste identification forms (FIR), and monthly reporting to the Commissioner. As far as Arpac is concerned, it will provide 8 new technical-scientific figures to strengthen environmental control. The Extraordinary Commissioner will make economic resources available for this purpose. The specialists will be able to remain in office for a period of 24 months (and in any case no later than 31 December 2027, the expiry date of the commissarial structure), and will be responsible for intensifying waste sampling, analysis and characterisation activities.

"This protocol is the institutional response that the citizens of the Terra dei Fuochi have been waiting for _ says Prefect Fabio Ciciliano, extraordinary commissioner for infrastructural and social redevelopment interventions _ this is not a spot initiative, but an integrated and financed system, capable of guaranteeing operational continuity, waste traceability and public health protection, with the direct involvement of all the competent subjects in the area. A synergy that will bring important results in several areas. Thanks to Arpa Campania, for example, we will provide fundamental support for the institutions in the area and also for the Public Prosecutor's Office'.