«No to Martucci, let’s protect our children». The message of the activists of the Stop Martucci, Legambiente, Sciala delle cozze and Laboratoriourbano committees is clear and incontrovertible. The landfill cannot and must not be reopened, not even for a single lot. The debate on the site, subjected to seizure for illegal waste disposal last year, was reopened on the occasion of the meeting of the special commission, which met in Mola di Bari. The situation the site currently finds itself in would not be better. The wells appear to be dry, inaccessible and closed by tires, chains and beams. The sheets, which should protect the waste, are full of holes while the probes are unable to penetrate to record the state of the places. The mayor of Molise Giuseppe Colonna, reading a report by Arpa Puglia during the public meeting, declared that the extraction of the leachate, also attested by an Ispra report, would be difficult and unachievable under current conditions. The opponents of the reopening of the landfill will address the mayor himself, taking to the streets on Saturday 18 May at 5pm, to request the assumption of a strong political position.
«We ask that the mayor act immediately – they say – by interfacing with the President of the Puglia Region and the other authorities to immediately make it clear that Mola is no longer willing to submit to this debacle. It is urgent that Martucci closes all waste treatment activities and immediately starts a clean-up action, as citizens’ health is at stake.”
Launch of prevention measures, with leachate extraction, permanent safety measures, reclamation and environmental restoration of lots 1, 2 and 3, which continue to produce serious pollution of the aquifer, currently without adequate protection and the closure of the activity by 2025, with the finding of a new site in a different territory, are the points supported by citizens’ associations.
The Puglia Region had recently made public a note on the definitive closure of some landfills, among which Martucci was. But the site that received attention was lot 3, which was never the subject of a reopening plan, unlike lot 2.
“We have already given for 40 years, enough is enough, politics cannot fail to listen to us, the health of our children is at stake”, they conclude.
