“Acqua Sarnella”, a Molotov of water for the decontamination of the Sarno river. The awareness campaign starts today
The “Acqua Sarnella” awareness campaign starts today to sensitize local, regional and national institutions on the decontamination of the Sarno river.
The provocative campaign, conceived and created free of charge by 4 expert communication professionals such as Gianluca Sales, Aldo Padovano, Fabrizio Pozza and Gaetano Del Mauro in collaboration with the association “Controcorrente”, aims to support the associations of the Sarno river basin in the fight for the depollution of the river and the redevelopment of the territories bathed by it. We are talking about a watercourse just 24 km long but extending over a hydrographic basin of 438 thousand square km, which crosses 39 municipalities between the provinces of Salerno, Avellino and Naples and its pollution seriously endangers the health of almost a million inhabitants.
“Acqua Sarnella” represents the instrument through which the association “Controcorrente”, together with many other associations present in the territory, wants to relaunch the awareness and mass dissemination regarding the critical issues related to the Sarno river and its devastating impact on the health of citizens, with particular attention to tumors and neuro-degenerative diseases caused by heavy metals present in very high concentrations within the river.
Sarnella represents the great paradox of our land that lives and dies of irony. It is the symbol of a need that for the citizens of Campania can no longer be postponed. Covid-19 has demonstrated once again the primary importance of the right to health, which cannot be the object of political negotiations. Sarnella's mission is, in an exquisitely realistic key, to clear the battle for the decontamination of the most polluted river in Europe from the provincialism that distinguishes it, in order to trigger political and social reactions on a national, if not European, scale.
A real Molotov cocktail of water against the disinterest and immobility of political and judicial institutions.
The “Acqua Sarnella” campaign has always been supported by “Controcorrente – Per il Sarno che venire”, an association made up of young activists who have been fighting for the decontamination of the Sarno river since 2018, putting it at the center of the political debate at the municipal and regional level.
Over the years, “Controcorrente” has managed to carry out scientific research on the state of health of the river, worked on a widespread awareness of the citizens through meetings in schools that led to the training of thousands of students, started legal battles to nail those responsible for the environmental degradation in which the territories crossed by the river are immersed. A work that right after the first lockdown of spring 2020 led to the establishment of “Sarno 2020”, a network of associations present in all the communities bathed by the Sarno river, culminating with the organization of the demonstration of July 11, 2020, when thousands of people met at the Centro Direzionale in Naples to protest at the entrance of the Regional Council of Campania with a programmatic manifesto presented to the institutions.
Despite the efforts, to date there is no improvement in progress. The main sources of pollution of the Sarno remain the same: industrial pollution and domestic pollution.
The tip of the iceberg is represented by the Solofra tanning center, one of the 4 largest Italian districts for leather processing, but we can also detect the presence of furniture, paint, ceramic factories, and over 100 canning industries linked to tomato processing. The pharmaceutical industry also has a significant weight in the pollution of the river. Illegal dumping by industries has contributed to making the Sarno river, with particular attention to the Solofrana torrent, a receptacle of heavy metals, among which the presence of Chromium stands out, used for tanning leather, present in concentrations up to 30 times greater than the legal limit, according to the findings ARPAC prepandemic.
Industrial pollution is then added to domestic pollution. Many of the 39 municipalities in the Sarno basin, in fact, do not have a sewer collection system leading to an abnormal concentration of escherichia coli present in the river. Data that certify the very high risk of developing tumoral pathologies and not only.
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Article published on May 8, 2021 - 11:32 pm
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