Dear friends, I don’t know whether you’re interested in this, as it’s a local problem, but, since we told you we’d update you on the issue of the public works for the protection against coastal erosion in Anzio, here we go.
There isn’t much to say, actually, except that the works are going on and on. They were supposed to stop at the end of April, but were granted an extension until May 31. Great!! This means another whole month of trucks, scrapers and stones!!! Yup, because right now if you go to the beach in Anzio, that’s all you see: there’s a sort of “highway” right in the middle of the sea, and trucks loaded with stones run up and down the hwy and unload huge rocks. Just imagine the noise they make.
On the weekend you can see lots of people walking on this “wonder of nature”, and I really wonder what they think about it… I mean, at the beginning I thought people would be horrified to see this new “road” about 2 meters above sea level, but now that more than three months have gone by I’m starting to wonder. And why is that? As I said, after months of hard work, in which we tried to inform people and raise awareness of the issue, we tried to attract the interest of the media and environmental associations, we wrote several articles on local newspapers and loads of articles on the internet, we’re starting to have doubts. Not about the fact that this plan is totally insane, nor about its huge environmental impact, but just about one thing: what do people, normal people, who are not surfers, think about it? Do they like it? Are they outraged or horrified by it? Or is it that they just don’t care at all about what’s going on?
And how about the public administration? Don’t they care about the repercussions that these works will have on the environment, water quality, safety and tourism? As we already told you in our previous article, we tried talking to the public administration and the Mayor of Anzio to convince them that something must be done. But they did nothing. Moreover, what is now clear is that they consider us just surfers, and, as such, a great pain in the ass… But we’re more than that: we’re citizens who are tired of watching the public administration destroy the environment.
Here’s some interesting news for all the surfers in Lazio: on March 11 the Italian news agency ANSA issued a press release stating that the Lazio Region has allocated 25 million euros for coastal defense and protection interventions. (They’re going to carry out the same insane plan all over the Region!!!!) “The towns where coastal protection interventions will be carried out”, said Mattei - a representative from the Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development of the Lazio Region – “are Ostia, Anzio, Nettuno, Latina, Formia, Fondi, Minturno, Terracina, Pomezia (Torvajanica), Ladispoli. It must be pointed out that the plans, regarding 80% of the interventions, have been carried out and developed by employees of the Lazio Region, thus significantly cutting overall costs”.
Good for us! They even managed to save taxpayers’ money! If this is the solution that the employees of the Lazio Region have come up with, I’m glad to say our coast is in good hands. There’s nothing to worry about!!!!
In the meantime, the construction works go on (even right now, at this very moment, I can hear them from here – it’s 7:30 PM…) while a few weeks ago, something extremely interesting happened in the neighboring town of Nettuno. ARDIS, the same agency that is in charge of the works in Anzio, decided to take immediate action to remove the recently built underwater barrier and only leave the groynes!!! It is worth mentioning what Alessio Chiavetta, the Mayor of Nettuno, said: “… we are working and exerting pressure on the relevant governmental bodies to protect the coast of Nettuno, which is severely hit by coastal erosion. It is now evident that the underwater barrier method is totally insufficient and inadequate: we need to build groynes on the whole stretch of coast to protect it, which is a project I’ve been supporting for quite some time and that is favorably viewed by many private beach clubs”.
So while ARDIS is busy building a Chinese wall in Anzio, only a few kilometers away, in Nettuno, the same agency has just finished removing the underwater barrier, as it was considered an insufficient and inadequate method for the protection against coastal erosion!!!! It’s such a paradox, isn’t it????
Italy is not famous around the world for the great attention paid to environmental protection. However, there are some exceptions: in Sabaudia, the Town Committee, together with the Park Protection Agency, the Province of Latina and the Land Improvement Consortium, stated that they will request ARDIS to review the coastal protection plan, so as to remove the barrier and adopt more eco-friendly methods. Nello Ialongo, a member of the Board of Directors of the Park Protection Agency, firmly opposes the plan and declares that underwater barriers have always devastated the neighboring stretches of coast.
Clearly, Chiavetta and Ialongo must be surfers, to come down so hard on the poor barriers!!!!
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