The Italian government does not plan to shut down steel producer Ilva, which it has recently brought back into state ownership. However Ilva – like all steel producers – is a serious polluter. I travelled to its steel plant in Taranto in June 2021 to talk with local residents and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including parents who lost their children to cancer caused by pollution.

Living in Taranto today means breathing polluted air every day. Tamburi District, the closest to Ilva’s steel plant, is famous for its walls. Every outside wall is painted red by its inhabitants “because they’d become red anyway due to the Iron oxide coming from the steel plant”. Doctors ascribe a rise in cancer rates in the city to the pollution. “No one here is safe” locals say, “even those who live in districts who are not so close to the establishment, often get sick”.

WE ARE TALKING ABOUT HUMAN BEINGS

It is easy to think about the people who got sick, or have died, because of the pollution as mere statistics. We must remember we are talking about human beings. Many of those who passed away were children or teenagers. During my trip to Taranto, I spoke with the parents of Ambra, who died of leukaemia four years ago, aged seven. “When doctors told us there would not be anything left to do to save her, we brought her home and did our best to make all her dreams come true. We  took  her  to  the  safari  zoo,  and to  the  Taranto Racecourse  (she  loved  horses). On 31 May 2017, she died”.

Local parents and NGOs have a saying: “no amount of steel is worth more than a child’s life”. It is simply outrageous that such a situation continues in 2021. It would be inhuman and wrong anywhere in the world, but Italy is considered a developed and democratic country. Politicians are culpable. The Italian Constitution puts an obligation on the state to protect the health of citizens. Politicians have regularly gone talking about shutting the steel plant. That is what most people in Taranto want. However, politicians have failed to follow up on their promises.

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION HAS ACCUSED ITALY OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

The European Commission has accused Italy of human rights violations for not mitigating Ilva’s pollution. On 31 May 2021 former steel plant owners and brothers Fabio and Nicola Riva were sentenced to 22 and 20 years in jail respectively, and they were among many others sentenced by the court for the high level of pollution caused by the establishment. I was there when they announced the sentences. The locals cheered when they heard these people would be punished but talking with many of them later that day, or in the next few days, they candidly admitted they do not trust this solution much. They do not trust justice anymore. They think these people will somehow get shorter sentences and a mom who has lost her daughter to cancer said: “no amount of years in jail for them would be enough for me. I’ll never have my daughter back”.

A FORGOTTEN CITY

Taranto is a forgotten city. The government works hard to deprive it of most of the opportunities we regularly find in cities. Events and culture are not nurtured or encouraged. Taranto is amazing; its historical centre, its traditions, its food and culture, its museums, and its beaches should make it one of the top tourist destinations in the world yet tourism is not promoted. When you walk around Taranto, you get a feeling of potential and you can easily imagine how the city could be if the government invested in it. “They don’t want to,” a local told me, “so we have to rely on the Ilva or move away”. Many people have moved away and others plan to do so but not everyone is able to leave.

“Taranto wasn’t always like this,” one man told me, “when I was a child, in the 1960s,  in  every  neighbourhood  of  Taranto  and  the  surrounding  area  you breathed pure sea air. When a child from any other city – let’s say from Milan, Rome, Florence or Livorno—had breathing problems the doctor would tell their parents to take them to the sea in Taranto, because the air was good and clean here”.

FIGHTING FOR THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS

Locals have fought for their human rights for years. After many battles with no victory, many have given up. However, some fight on. I travelled to Taranto because I wanted to see it with my own eyes. I could not comprehend, and I still cannot, why I can breathe clean air while the locals in Taranto struggle, suffer, and die. Despite laws guarantee clean air for everyone, these laws are not applied equally.

I am often surprised how few Italians know about the situation in Taranto. Adults, young people, and kids are left to die with the government’s contribution as they know perfectly well what happens there and have simply decided, not only to dismiss it, but to get their hands even more dirty with innocent people’s blood and to become part of the capital of the company.

We should fight along with the people of Taranto. They are loving, welcoming, great people who are so proud of their city and would want to see it shine and prosper. They deserve to breathe clean air, their kids deserve to grow-up and live their lives. They are not fighting for a dream, or a luxury. They are fighting for those human rights they should have gotten at birth and their government should have protected at all costs.

Maricla Pannocchia is a writer with a focus on human rights and social causes. She’s from Italy, where she still has her base, even though she considers herself a “citizen of the world”. In 2014 she has set up her own charity Adolescenti e cancro (Teens and Cancer), which still runs, to support young people with cancer. She has published three books in Italian about social issues and on September 11th 2021 she’ll release her debut YA novel in English, “Letters from Afghanistan.” She travels around the world to write about people we don’t often hear from.