Environmentalists to Campania Region: “Coasts should be 50% free”

“In the Puad approved by the Board of Campania 70% is entrusted to private individuals and 30% to citizens as a free beach. Today we are holding this civic demonstration to urge the Region, in particular the Regional Council to which the ball is now in the court of approval after the civic observations, but also to urge the presidency and vice-presidency of Campania, to review this proposal by Puad which is absolutely unacceptable”.

This is how Anna Savarese, member of the regional management of Legambiente in Campania, explains the demonstration that took place this morning in front of the headquarters of the Campania Region in via Santa Lucia, with various movements that displayed protest signs and also brought a mermaid doll and a surfboard to underline how the sea belongs to everyone, not just those who can afford to go to paid beaches.

The new Puad was approved by the Regional Council on 20 December 2022 and until 6 March it accepted the observations that were sent, before passing everything to the Regional Council.

“The Puad is – explains Savarese – the Plan for the use of state-owned maritime areas for tourism and recreation purposes and therefore also for bathing. State-owned areas are in fact a public good that are given in concessions lasting decades, and the institutions have gradually reduced the free beaches for citizens who cannot afford the costs for bathing in private.

They have therefore taken away the right to the sea. The philosophy of the Puad itself, which has not been subjected to the strategic environmental assessment, which is a plan that intervenes on the environmental issue, does not therefore take into account the increase in erosion which is accompanied by more concreting and occupation of the beaches.

Where the sea is rising and the beach is decreasing, we need to intervene to provide for environmental rebalancing. The significant aspect, however, remains social justice, because we cannot allow this Puad to provide only 30% of free beaches compared to the at least 50% that all the other Italian Regions are providing”.

Legambiente has started a reflection on the Puad in recent months - continues Savarese - with over 50 associations, discussing the observations together and elaborating them. Now the ball is in the Council's court for the approval of the Puad and we must ensure that the councilors reflect carefully and listen to the observations and popular sentiment".

Demonstrating, among others, were also the Committees for the Free, Free and Clean Sea of ​​Campania, as Mario Avoletto, one of the members, explains: “We are fighting – he says – for a sea that is a common good for all and today we are in the square because the conditions of access to the sea are increasingly restricted.

In a seaside city, the sea does not bathe Naples: if a family does not have a hundred euros to spend, they cannot afford to enjoy it. We contest that the sea is for the exclusive use of anyone and for a year we have been carrying out initiatives and symbolic assaults on the beaches with canoes and we have made long reports to map the beaches of Naples.

Today the Region with the Puad says that it wants to assign a meager 30% to free bathing, instead we ask for a reclamation of the coasts to the east and west of the city and that the sea belongs to all Neapolitans. Even the President of the Republic Mattarella intervened to say that Italy is under a European infringement for this now we immediately ask for a reversal of the percentages, we want 70% of free beach and 30% to private individuals”.

 photo video service by Alessandro Memoli