AVELLINO. Mr Ciro Tufanoa textile merchant, proudly showing off his desert fortress. More than just a house, it is a palace. Four stories, double windows, marble floors, fireplaces, new and polished furniture. There’s even an elevator, but it’s all empty. Mr. Ciro Tufano lives in one of them ghost town. He had no neighbors, he had no fellow villagers, he didn’t even have a telephone. TO Conza only three lived there. The old village on the mountain was still there when he left it earthquake from seven years ago. Not a single stone was moved. No walls were torn down or pulled back. Debrisdebris, broken blocks everywhere. And the houses left standing had empty windows. For the three remaining families currently, the State will incur a lot of costs. Roads, sewers and services must be improved: four, five billionmaybe more. Ciro Tufano complains: All this money is just for me? Do I have to be here alone? It doesn’t make sense…. It doesn’t make sense, but that’s how it is. The others, fifteen hundred, were downstream, still crammed inside hut. The majority seem inclined to stay there. Those unwilling or unable to rebuild the old city awaited their homes on the plain. He will wait a while.
I traveled to hell through the earthquake-stricken streets of Irpinia
by our correspondent Stefano Malatesta
For New Conza The Municipality wants to single out, despite the negative opinion of experts, the plain which is a swamp. The ground was soaking wet, and had not been dried at all before work began. All basements have swimming pools: the rule is one meter, one and a half meters of water. Sir’s house Dante Cantarellathe city’s leading doctor, remains trapped in a reinforced concrete frame. The foundation is sunk into the lake. The owner joked: Last year I found an eel. Maybe now at Christmas I’ll find the capitoni. Sea of mud Work has been halted for more than a year. Companies that built roads, sewers and services have abandoned construction sites. Meanwhile, Conza has been assigned 78 of 94 billion which is their right, 51 million per residenthis future rotting in a sea of mud. Here he is reconstruction? Of course, Conza is not a good example of how public money is spent. The old and the new center is a very big case wastelack of coordination, no development plan, carelessness, or perhaps worse, managers.
The following are the current controversies: i liberal who rumbled and asked for one parliamentary commission of inquiry on the billions spent Irpinia. THAT Communist who, with a more lukewarm attitude, after a brief tour of the earthquake-stricken cities, asked for acognitive investigation. And I Christian Democrats who answered: Do you want to be tried ADVERTISEMENT (mastellaspokesman De Mita). Or: This is a common accusation against the rough people of the South (WithoutDeputy Minister of Intervention in the South). The clash, not surprisingly, occurred in the midst of discussions on other decisions for the law earthquake area. If this commission is born, what will it gain? He would not find a rebuilt Irpinia, but another Irpinia. In fact, reconstruction does not exist, or almost does not exist: it is difficult to use this word when in many cities i historic center they are not even touched by the work; houses are born, but in the countryside.
He would find Irpinia richer, uglier, and bigger. Bigger because at the end of the emergency period there will be more houses. Worse because many of them were built without it city planwithout criteria, without limitations: Swiss villas and country houses. Richer because it was not rain but a flood of billions that hit the earthquake-stricken area: 25-30 thousand until now. And there will be many more in the future. Ultimately, half of the total will flow to the area debt accumulated by the State in a year. Some of this money stops there bank: safe full of money, Avellinoin recent years, it has made huge leaps in rankings savings. They tellObservatory in Camorracenter for collecting data on organized crime in Campania: This is the province that, in percentage terms, has the most Mercedes and much more Volvo.
If Conza is an extreme case, Lyon is an example. Lyons, one of the largest centers in crater95 percent destroyed, today it is a strange mix: a collection of construction sites and rubble, buildings under construction and ruins of ancient walls, activity and abandonment. Welcome to third worldthat’s the writing posted on a house several months ago. The only thing that has been completed, for now, is a hideous and giant thatched yellow church, cost four billion diverted from reconstruction funds, located right above the city. That panettonthey call it. However, the ancient church bell tower was wrapped in Innocenti tubes: restoration stalled. Fourteen hundred families they still live in huts: paradoxically, this is the only area in the country that has a certain visual order. The rest is chaos.
Antonio Gioinoa communist, already deputy mayor in the first years after the earthquake, showed bitterness towards the reborn street: each building had its own facade, its curtains, its balconies, its balustrades. A group of styles in the central remains of the Renaissance. Looks like a suburb of Naples. I told him: it is impossible to give individual owners the possibility to choose how to rebuild. On the other hand, it was at this point that we lost the election. He wonindividualism. But now they realize it. This city is a gem. They will meet in one place uninhabitable when everything is finished. Yes, but when? Debris located next to new buildings could remain there forever. They are waiting for the owners to reach an agreement. It’s true: the mayor has to struggle with it owned by often very fragmented, with the desire to move house to the countryside, with family quarrels, with the desire to expand. The Municipality also has the possibility to intervene with the authorities in these cases. But he never did, Gioino said. On the other hand, the City Government allows it expansion: On this street there is a two-story house. With variants, it is also possible to make three of them.
Without tearing down the old Irpinia cannot be rebuilt, it will multiply. It descends into the valleys, and almost always builds new ones without destroying the old ones. Of course there are exceptions, for example Saint Andrew or Sant’Angelo. But they say there are too many elsewhere farm major residential building technicians have become accomplices. And too many properties are multiple. Torella dei Lombardi announced by the completion of the building built aboveOfhantin. This is not the countryside, this is not the countryside. It’s a neighborhood without quality, a suburb without a center. In the village, ancient castle Caracciolo Once the seat of government, it is just a pile of rocks surrounded by a barrier, but without a construction site.
Long time lover of this region, Manlio Rossi Doria in the early years of the earthquake, it was very close Zamberletti: I always say: in Irpinia there were two or three earthquakes, not just one: there was excessive and reckless use of energy. bulldozer. Many more can be saved. And there was excessive use of barracks. Who knows how long they will stay. But some add that the last earthquake was the invasion of billions of people law 219. Enrico Fierroregional monthly journalist, The Voice of Campaniais a valuable source of information: Just look at this data. The mayor of a municipality such as Serpico mountain ash609 souls, suddenly found himself twenty thousand million to be managed within a few years. Managers are needed to manage these numbers. But there are none. The burst of money actually becomes a great opportunity for business. Price concrete up 34 percent.
Sociologists say My beloved LambertiCamorra Observatory director: La camera he immediately understood, and acted with perfect timing. A month after the earthquake Concrete concretefound linked to Sergio Marinelliaccused several times in Camorra trials. No construction site in Irpinia cannot function without its concrete. Construction with mechanism subcontract it has become a rule. According to Antonio Gioino, companies get rich: they win contracts, pocket 15-20 percent and entrust the work to others at lower costs. The money has arrived, but instead it has decreased work. THAT unemployed there were 20 thousand in ’80, there 43 thousand Today. He also unemployed builders the numbers are increasing: At the construction site they tell the union that people are working illegally, when the police arrive people run away.
Remnants of his dreams still remainindustrialization the crumbs remain in the mountains. This is one of the challenges of reconstruction: bringing factories to underdeveloped and hard-to-reach areas like Irpinia. THAT’article 32 law 219 allows it: The state provides equipped areas, roads, services and pays 75 percent of the investment. Practically everything was built at public expense. But we started off on the wrong foot. We had to do three, four at most industrial areaprecisely because the costs are very high, he said Gerardo Adigliettisecretary CGIL instead they produced eight. Everything is alright mountain community he wanted his, and more. There are many stories of great nightly debates over where to invest factory wealth. This is where it arises Dietal From Calisto Tanzi in the region Nuscoand it Ferrero just four kilometers further, in the Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi region. Highways have been built, rivers have been diverted (il Hot) but currently only in eight industrial areas eleven factories in operation, with 450 workers. The number must be around eighty.
And temporary Elveno Pastorelliwho is the main guardian of the project, revoking permits for those who no longer comply, some have asked for permission. reserved fund. Some even closed before they opened: a boat factory (in the mountains) left its warehouse half-finished. So they left three trillion: it’s been paid one billion to create jobs. And there was even a failed attempt to extend the benefits of article 32 for industrialization to other cities not affected by the earthquake. Distortion. What a waste. Bad investment.
The opposition accuses DC of defending itself, but right now everyone is afraid the tap will turn off. CGIL Secretary stressed: Let us make one thing clear. The investigation is fine. But we want reconstruction not to stop. We said this is a unique experiment in Europe, we have to continue it. AND Michele D’AmbrosioAvellino, communist deputy: Parliamentary investigations cannot be carried out in a climate of scandalism, anti-Southernism. We want a fact-finding investigation. And if we discover violations or prohibited practices, we will take appropriate action. Having stated this premise, D’Ambrosio denounced that the situation in the historic centers was very dramatic, and only rebuilt until 30, 35 percent. That Irpinia construction siteTherefore, it promises to remain open for years to come. In the end, the real scandal is this.
