CROTONE “It makes us think that, faced with a very serious situation, the institutions do not take adequate initiatives”. Mario Oliverio, former president of the Calabrian regional council, returns to turn the spotlight on the Crotone reclamation affair, five days after the decision-making Services Conference, convened by the Ministry of the Environment to identify the plant where one million tons of waste will be delivered , currently crammed into the seafront landfill. When the journalist highlights that the debate seems to have exhausted itself and the issue now seems to be directed towards the solution indicated by Eni Rewind, of disposing of the poisons in a purpose-built landfill to be built within the former Pertusola south site, Oliverio raises the volume of the voice and defends the role played by the “Venoms Out – Crotone wants to live” Committee. A “unitary” Committee that “had the merit and courage to raise the problem and jointly address an issue which, otherwise, would have had a tragic conclusion for Crotone and Calabria”. Crotone poisons are carcinogenic. “It makes us think – he adds – that in the face of this affair full of illegality and violence towards the community, the institutions do not take adequate initiatives”. Oliverio expresses the concern that “in some cases, behind bombastic words, complicity and a sell-out of collective interests could be hidden”. What is it referring to? To this question, Oliverio responds: “Faced with this situation, a conference is organized, that of Legambiente, even to sponsor Eni’s proposal to leave the poisons in Crotone in a designated landfill.” At the conference organized by Legambiente, also attended by the national president of the environmental association, the proposal was put forward to build the purpose-built landfill proposed by Eni within the land owned by the state giant. Legambiente, however, said it was against the delivery of poisons to Columbra and the authorization of the landfill proposed by Guglielmo Maio in Giammiglione. “Why – Oliverio asked – in recent years a voice has not been raised to ask Eni to proceed with the reclamation in compliance with Pob phase 2 approved by the 2019 Services Conference. How come a voice has not been raised to prevent or try to radically correct the approach of the Regional Waste Plan which allows Calabria to be transformed into a national landfill”. The reference is not only to Legambiente. “That Plan – adds Oliverio – opens the doors to hazardous waste of all kinds”. “Why – Oliverio continues to ask – in the face of activities that give a glimpse of business operations on the skin of the territory by an entrepreneurship that, evidently, has not found and would not find an audience elsewhere?”. It is this silence that pushes Oliverio to accuse the institutions of “being non-compliant and hidden”. There is also silence regarding the position of Legambiente which, among other things, claims to be in line with the commissioner for land reclamation, Emilio Errigo?. To this question, Oliverio responds: “Legambiente’s position is serious. Lagambiente has had and continues to have an important role for the defense of the environment and for its ability to place environmental issues of national importance at the center of discussion. Therefore, I cannot explain this position and I cannot explain why this position takes on the role of spokesperson for Eni’s proposal. An unacceptable proposal because it suggests a colonial attitude towards Calabria”. Regarding the services conference on 26 June, Oliverio highlights that “there is the fixed point of Paur approved on 2 August 2019, which does not make the task of those who want to close the game to the detriment of the Calabrians any easier. The Fear is there because it has not been modified or repealed.” The Region can still play an important role. In this regard, Oliverio states: “I believe that in these hours through a clear document, as it is already June 21st, the Region must assume the will to freeze everything pending the necessary changes to the Waste Plan approved last March” . According to Oliverio, the Region “must adopt a law by convening the emergency Council or even an administrative measure, such as the Council, which expresses the desire to freeze the situation pending the modification of the waste plan”. Subsequently, he says that he appreciated the position expressed by CGIL, CISL and UIL, who in a recent meeting with the president of the Calabrian council “posed the question asking that it become central and asked the president to proceed with the modification of the Plan to guarantee the health of citizens, which must be put first. Precisely for this reason “you cannot go to the Services Conference convinced that it is enough to declare and have it recorded in the minutes that you vote against. This is not enough because we know that this would be a pirate operation.” It would be like saying, we are against it, but you can do what you like, the important thing is what is written in the minutes. “It would be a disguised deception.” Without the constraints of the previous regional waste plan approved in 2016, canceled by the new Plan, Eni can easily achieve its goal. “I believe – said Oliverio – that we must proceed to correct the deception towards the citizens of Crotone”. He dispensed severe criticism to everyone, but he didn’t say anything about the role of the mayor of Crotone, Vincenzo Voce. Does this mean that he shares his choices? “So far I am negatively struck by the attitudes of a mayor who should have put himself at the head of a movement, which should have had the ability to unite the entire Crotone community on environmental and reclamation issues; should have made it the basis of a viaticum to build a real prospect of growth and development of one of the most significant and resource-rich realities of Calabria and the South. Voce, however, has chosen to place itself on divisive terrain and does not I really understood the reasons.” What’s underneath? “We should ask Voce, but I confess that I asked myself the question too. Despite Voce’s unjustified controversy towards me, I still don’t want to believe the response that many in Crotone give: it would be Eni’s great ability to convince”.
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