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In Pictures

Gallery|Environment

The toxic wasteland of Italy’s ‘Campania Felix’

Years of illegal toxic waste dumping by criminal syndicates caused environmental ruin in once fertile Naples region.

Italian toxic waste/Please Do Not Use
Toxic waste has been buried systematically at this Roma camp near Caivano, a city and commune in the Metropolitan City of Naples. [Isabell Zipfel/Al Jazeera]
By Isabell Zipfel
Published On 28 Jan 201628 Jan 2016
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Naples, Italy – It has been known as the most fertile area in Campania, Europe’s vegetable garden. The Romans called it “Campania Felix” – the fertile countryside.

But now, the area north of Naples and south of Caserta is known as “Fireland” or the “Death Triangle”. Since the late 1980s, toxic waste has been transported here from all over Europe, and either hastily buried or left to lie under the open sky. Industrial companies, to avoid the high disposal costs of special waste, hired the Camorra, a mafia-type organised crime syndicate, which offered to dispose of it very cheaply and haphazardly.

An estimated 11.6 million tonnes of toxic waste is buried or burned beneath vegetable fields, in quarries or on open land in the area around Naples, according to official figures, although locals think it could be much more. Highly toxic industrial waste such as dioxin, arsenic, and even radioactive material can be found in the area. 

According to one study by The Lancet, the cancer rate in the cities and towns in the “Death Triangle”, which are home to millions of people, lies way above the national average.

The problem of the illegal disposal of toxic waste is not just regional or even restricted to Italy. Some of the toxic substances buried by the industries of the north return there in the form of food, points out researcher Hans N Pfeiffer in his book. The “Campania Felix” is one of Italy’s most important fruit and vegetable suppliers and the products grown here are sold by big supermarket chains throughout Europe. 

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Italian toxic waste/Please Do Not Use
Toxic waste has been dumped in the canals that weave through the Province of Naples for many years. [Isabell Zipfel/Al Jazeera]
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Italian toxic waste/Please Do Not Use
At 'Resit', the former waste disposal site in Giugliano near Naples, highly toxic industrial sludge is stored inappropriately. [Isabell Zipfel/Al Jazeera]
Italian toxic waste/Please Do Not Use
A geological study conducted by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in 2014 to measure the level of contamination in the former waste disposal site 'Resit' found that by 2064, as the waste seeps into the ground water, a 20km radius would become uninhabitable due to contamination. [Isabell Zipfel/Al Jazeera]
Italian toxic waste/Please Do Not Use
Roma communities live at the foot of 'Resit' landfill, which is stuffed with, among other hazardous waste, toxic sludge and dioxin. The environmental effects in the area have been compared to the Chernobyl disaster. [Isabell Zipfel/Al Jazeera]
Italian toxic waste/Please Do Not Use
Francesco, an activist from Caivano, has been running an awareness campaign about the toxic waste in the "Death Triangle" for many years. [Isabell Zipfel/Al Jazeera]
Italian toxic waste/Please Do Not Use
Caivano is near the town of Casal di Principe, the home of the Casalesi Clan, which is thought to be responsible for the contamination of the Campania region. [Isabell Zipfel/Al Jazeera]
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Italian toxic waste/Please Do Not Use
Newspapers in Caivano carry frequent death notices. Deadly cancers are more prevalent in the area than in other parts of Italy because of the toxicity released by the waste. [Isabell Zipfel/Al Jazeera]
Italian toxic waste/Please Do Not Use
Many local cancer cases are similar to illnesses caused by pollution in industrial belt regions, although there is no large industry in the area. [Isabell Zipfel/Al Jazeera]
Italian toxic waste/Please Do Not Use
Gabriele, a Caivano native, lost his father to lung cancer at the age of 46. [Isabell Zipfel/Al Jazeera]
Italian toxic waste/Please Do Not Use
Waste is left to lie under the open sky near a vegetable field in Orta di Atella. [Isabell Zipfel/Al Jazeera]
Italian toxic waste/Please Do Not Use
Toxic waste was mixed with cement or concrete and used in the construction of buildings, motorways, highways and even railway lines in the area and through Italy. [Isabell Zipfel/Al Jazeera]
Italian toxic waste/Please Do Not Use
Marzia lives in Casalnuovo di Napoli. Her family left Naples looking for a pleasant place with clean air in the countryside. Instead, her son Antonio died of cancer at the age of nine. Marzia is an activist with the association Noi genitori di tutti (We are the parents of all), an association of mothers and fathers from the region who have lost their children to cancer. [Isabell Zipfel/Al Jazeera]
Italian toxic waste/Please Do Not Use
Marzia shows a picture of her son, Antonio, who died of cancer in 2013 at the age of nine. [Isabell Zipfel/Al Jazeera]


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