broken paradise

Indifference is the opposite of love and is ruining our island. A third of Sardinia that it is advertised as a holiday island is heavily polluted. One inhabitant out of three in Sardinia lives in a contaminated area. This is a broken paradise.
Angelo Cremone, environmental activist of Sardinia

Resistance and resilience can truly be a hope for our future. It all depends on us.
Ignazio Aztori, mayor of Portoscuso

This work documents the status quo and the evolutions of a silent environmental crisis in the heart of Sardinia, a popular tourist summer holiday destination in the Mediterranean.

Ancient land of shepherds and miners, the southwest part of Sardinia is now one of the most contaminated areas in Italy. Ban on local agricultural products, open-air landfills of hazardous waste, soil and groundwater contamination still characterize the area today after decades of disputes. The Italian government has marked the area as a Site of National Concern (Sito di Interesse Nazionale) since 2001 but still much needs to be done to heal that wounded and fragile territory, and its inhabitants.

In the 70s, the so-called “Rebirth Plan” and the subsequent closure of the mines brought heavy industry (aluminum, lead, zinc, sulfuric acid from minerals) to the island. Over 7 km2 of factories and chimneys still stand out from a bucolic postcard landscape at less than 500 meters from the first houses of the small town of Portoscuso. Here the economic boom came with irreversible side effects to the detriment of the environment and local communities.

“In the early 90s, our territory was declared a high risk area of environmental crisis. Then a clean-up and decontamination plan was only partially implemented due to bureaucratic reasons. Today we are a Site of National Concern and reality hasn’t changed much. A series of consequences of the wild industrialization that took place at the beginning of the 70s still persists today”, said Ignazio Aztori, mayor of Portoscuso.

From waste to quantum physics, local coalmines have recently started to implement new initiatives, while the heavy industry has presented the first collective plan to decontaminate the groundwater from dangerous metals. Local communities are mobilizing to stop the construction project of a maxi gas carrier on the port quay of Portoscuso at less than 800 meters from the houses and the industry plant. All signals that finally something is moving to cease any further abuse against people and nature, and defend that broken paradise.