As emergency teams continue to search relentlessly for the four people still missing since Saturday, the landslide in Ischia – which has killed at least eight people – has exposed the serious problem of illegal housing in Italy. . The island, located in front of the Gulf of Naples, is a tourist paradise also known for the wild construction of houses built without planning permission. Many of the buildings where the 230 people who have been evacuated lived are built in areas of high hydrogeological risk, and were later regularized with subsequent regulations, in exchange for the payment of a fine.
Experts and activists are denouncing that the construction of illegal houses increases the risks of natural disasters, a situation that, according to the head of the Italian Civil Protection, Fabrizio Curcio, could affect 94% of Italian municipalities. In Ischia, the problem is structural: a third of the houses on this island, some 27,000, many dedicated to tourism, have requested one of the amnesties offered in recent decades, in 1985, 1994 and 2003.
So, when the torrential rains accumulated on Mount Epomeo, the highest on the island, and an avalanche of mud and water occurred on the municipality of Casamicciola Terme, the first houses affected were those in the upper districts, amid the natural descent of possible landslides. “When the island enters into mass tourism, the infrastructures become exponential and the result is to drown out the natural elements of the territory and cover everything in cement”, wrote the geologist Mario Tozzi in La Stampa. “There has been chaotic construction of buildings and improper use of the land, which has made things worse. There are buildings in places that the geological conditions do not allow”, has criticized another specialist, Arcangelo Violo.
At the heart of the debate is a law approved by the first government of Giuseppe Conte, formed by the 5 Star Movement (M5E) and Matteo Salvini's League, which within a regulation to rebuild the collapsed bridge in Genoa in 2018 included permits to rehabilitate houses due to the last earthquake in Ischia, in 2017, which left two dead. So, the regulations also allowed illegal houses that had benefited from the three previous amnesties to take advantage of the law and public money to be rebuilt. The problem is not only in Ischia, which is also a volcanic island with high seismic risk, but structural. It is very common that in Italy irregular houses do not end up being demolished. According to the Legambiente association, in the north of the country between 40% and 60% are thrown down, but in the south it only happens to between 10% and 20% of them.
"We have to say it clearly: in some areas, for hydrogeological reasons, it is not possible to live", defended the president of the Campania region, Vincenzo De Luca. "We must demolish the accommodation built on the banks of the rivers - he urged -, in delicate and unsustainable hydrogeological zones, on state-owned land or built by Camorra companies." The statements that have caused the most debate have been those of the Minister of the Environment, Gilberto Pichetto, who wants to "put all mayors and all those who let things go to jail." Instead, the mayors of the towns on the island say that it is not the fault of the illegal constructions. The one from Forio, Francesco Del Deo, assured yesterday that many of the 27,000 requests to regularize homes corresponded to the same property. “Every time they try to make it look like it is the island of lawlessness, but this is not related to what has happened,” he opined.
The consequences of the disaster have names and surnames. An entire family has been found among the rubble, with two parents and three children aged 15, 11 and 6. Another of the victims is a baby of only 21 days. The Italian justice is also investigating why the alerts of a former mayor of Casamicciola, who sent warnings to the competent authorities of the risks posed by the announced rains four days before the avalanche, were not listened to, without receiving any response.
