 The Sarno river is in
the Campania region of Italy (of which Naples is the
capital city). It rises from the slopes of Mt. Sarno
near the town that also bears that name. On its way to
empty into the gulf of Naples near the Rovigliano Rock, between
Castellammare di Stabia and Torre Annunziata, the river
passes through the Campanian provinces of Salerno,
Avellino and Naples. The Sarno is 24 km long, and the
Sarno basin (that is, the area drained by the river and
its tributaries) covers 500 sq. km, an area confined by
the Picenti mountain range, the Salerno range, the
Lattari range, and the Somma-Vesuvius volcano. That area
is densely populated, containing 750,000 inhabitants.The Sarno is the most polluted river in Italy. A toilet. The situation is aggravated by large-scale dumping of untreated agricultural and industrial waste into the river. Additionally, the area is also tormented by frequent flooding and mudslides; in the last 20 years, the banks have ruptured two or three times a year, causing spill-over of polluted waters into the adjacent countryside with all the risk to public health that that implies. The manmade drainage canals and sewers along the length of the river, meant to handle run-off from rainwater by channeling it into the river, are also frequently clogged with debris and even cemented over in some places, thus increasing the flood risk even more.  Pollution levels "evolve"
along the length of the Sarno. At the source, near Mt.
Sarno itself, the river is still in a rather natural
state (though "pristine" in an area of 750,000 people
is perhaps stretching the description a bit). Flowers
grows on the banks and fish swim in the waters. As it
is channeled through the town of Sarno, itself, at the
foot of the Picenti range, it is still a pleasant
little stream (photo, right). A few kilometers farther
along, however, at the confluence with the Cavajola
river (flowing from its source near Cava dei Tirreni)
and the Solofana river (from the mountains in the
province of Avellino), the pollution picks up and is
visible. There are dumps along the banks. By the time
you get to Scafati, there is chemical foam in the
water.So, is there any good news? Maybe. The plan is to clean up the entire the length of the river plus the tributaries for a grand total of 170 km of waterway. The result would be a Sarno Park and would fit into the entire environmental campaign to protect the area, which, for example, now also includes the Vesuvius National Park right next door. Dredging has already begun to clear away an estimated 1,200,000 cubic meters of refuse from the water. (Imagine a cube one football field on a side. Now, fill it with refuse. Now, empty it.) Part of the plan involves incentives for the 500 small factories along the Sarno to stop dumping. ("Please stop dumping" signs are probably not going to do the trick.) The happy-happy politicos predict a two-year project, after which time we will be able to frolic in the pure waters of the sea near the mouth of the river. They must be kidding, but any start is welcome. add: August 2011  Well,
seven years have passed and I have not yet frolicked in
the pure waters of the sea near the mouth of the Sarno.
I guess these things take time. It wouldn't be the first
time they have tried to do something about the river.
The image on the right is from a much less crowded and
polluted time in Neapolitan history. The painting is by
Giovanni Serritelli (1810-1860) and is in the San
Martino National Museum in Naples. It is entitled
"Straightening the Course of the Sarno at Scafati." It
shows the festivities at the opening of the new,
straightened river on September 19, 1858 (propitious,
indeed; that is the feast day of San Gennaro, the patron
saint of Naples). The scene is the culmination of years
of work to "fix" the river. The work was primarily aimed
at shortening the length of the river; they cut it in
half by eliminating the many small turns and "oxbows."
This had a threefold effect: (1) it got rid of the
stagnant pools of still water and swamps along the river
that were breeding grounds for insects; (2) the Bourbons
were planning to move their main munitions factory to
that area and a "tighter" river would increase the
hydraulic energy available to mills in the factory; (3)
it provided a straighter and faster route for such
munitions to reach the open sea and the fleet.to main index to urban portal |
