The Naples Effect

One month ago, I was in Campania, visiting some of the best-preserved Roman ruins in the world, and the irony was not lost on me that they were also some of the cleanest places you could presently hope to see around Naples. These lost cities, empty of their citizenry, are some of the only places in the region where you won’t be overwhelmed by the stench of rotting garbage that represents the hopelessness of the current situation.

After experiencing a civic renaissance in the early nineties, the bad old days are back in Naples. Everyone knows what the problem is: the region’s dumps were full 10 years ago and Campania needs a waste disposal solution that will last more than six months. But knowing what the problem is, and how urgent it is, has not presented a solution. As much as the need for a new trash strategy is clear, so is the seeming inability for local or national governments to get anything off the ground.

Ex-Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s announcement in January that three new trash incinerators would be constructed in the region renewed fears that the Camorra would use these incinerators to burn toxic trash trucked in from the north. Silvio Berlusconi, after his election a month ago, decided to handle the crisis his own way and announced the opening of 10 new local dumps that would be designated as military zones, to keep protesting locals at bay. This didn’t stop the locals from protesting: nine people were injured in clashes between citizens and police in Chiaiano on May 23.

In almost every one of the 10 years since the last disposable diaper was crammed into Campania’s dumps, a state of emergency has been announced in the region.