In Italy there are just 120 square kilometers of beaches left

The quality of the Italian coasts continues to be strongly compromised by phenomena of illegal construction, illicit management of quarries and state concessions.To the point that the total surface area of ​​the remaining beaches reaches just 120 square km.This emerges from ISPRA's research and from the communications of the Legambiente association, which presented a preview of the results of its dossier Mare Monstrum. Every year the latter studies the impact of the illegal cement cycle on the sea of ​​the Bel Paese based on data collected by law enforcement and port authorities.The new research highlights that, during 2023, they have been well established 10,257 crimes in coastal regions, with the reporting of 11,647 people (+21.2%), 1,614 criminal seizures (+17.3%) and 14 precautionary custody orders.The number of people is also seeing an increase administrative offences, which reach 15,062 units (+11.7% compared to the previous year) and the related sanctions (34,121, +20.9%).

The data speaks clearly:to go up the worst effects of the phenomenon under analysis are the regions of Southern Italy.Campania stands out, which recorded 1,531 crimes (14.9% of the total), 1,710 people reported and even 4,302 sanctions.Second place is occupied by Puglia, where 1,442 crimes were certified, followed by Sicily, with 1,180 crimes.Calabria is immediately off the podium, with 1,046 crimes.However, it is also very problematic the situation of a series of regions in Central and Northern Italy:In fact, Tuscany is in fifth place, counting 794 crimes (i.e. 7.7% of the national total), followed by Veneto, with 705 crimes, and Lazio, with 617 crimes.In the meantime, a recent research by ISPRA - within which the 2020 coastal data were updated and integrated - has ascertained how, in our country, the overall surface area of ​​the beaches you measure only 120 square kilometers, even less than the territory of the municipality of Ostia alone, in Rome.The measure, ha written ISPRA in a press release, "appears small", since "on average Italian beaches are about 35m deep, and occupy about 41% of the coasts, or about 3400 km, out of a total of more than 8300 km".Specifically, if the values ​​of the surface of the beaches are taken into consideration, the southern regions cover half of the national surface (with Calabria alone accounting for 20% of the total).

«The Italian coasts  are a heritage of inestimable value, rich in history, beauty and biodiversity, but increasingly usurped by the wild brick with constructions that often remain in the state of skeletons, which privatize beaches or which arise in the middle of river beds or in areas at hydrogeological risk – declared Giorgio Zampetti, general director of Legambiente.Data preview of Mare Monstrum they demonstrate to us the urgency of intervene with legislative measures, as we asked the Government and all the political forces with our amendments to the Salvacasa decree, for us a "disguised amnesty".At the end of May, Legambiente had in fact strongly criticized the "Save home decree" approved by the Council of Ministers, judging him “a wrong measure that requires profound changes”.Specifically, Legambiente claims that "decisive, punctual and no longer postponable" interventions are necessary, including "the recognition of full power to the Prefects to demolish the buildings that are not demolished by the Municipalities" and the cancellation in the "Save Home" Decree of the so-called “silent assent”, which “would open the way to new abuses”.

[by Stefano Baudino]