Agriculture in these places, which used to export fruit and vegetables to as far as Scandinavia, has fallen sharply. The fields wither and lose their fertility, and the fruit that does grow is sickly. Moreover, people are constantly dying of cancer. The figures are striking. According to a 2008 survey conducted in the province of Naples and Caserta by the ISS, the national institute of health, there has been an increase in mortality from lung, liver, stomach, kidney and bladder cancer, as well as congenital malformations. These cases are mainly concentrated in an area that straddles the two provinces, where sites for the illegal disposal of toxic waste are more numerous. Even the World Health Organization talks about a staggering surge in cancer incidences in this area: the percentage is 12 per cent higher than the national average. In many parts of the region, cancer is not the unfortunate outcome of bad luck, but the consequence of deliberate actions on the part of criminal entrepreneurs: actions that all too many have an interest in perpetrating. The illnesses linked to the presence of toxic waste are a silent plague that no one talks about, difficult to monitor partly because those who are able to often go to seek treatment in the North.

Yet how many times have we been told that the ‘emergency’ is over? How many times have they told us ‘We’ve resolved it’? Seven times in just two years Silvio Berlusconi declared that the crisis had been resolved:

1 July 2008: ‘By the end of July, the city of Naples and the municipalities in the Neapolitan province will be cleaned up.’

18 July 2008: ‘The emergency has passed, we have disposed of fifty thousand tons of waste, Naples and Campania will go back to being like other Western cities, orderly and clean.’

26 March 2009: ‘Today is a historic day for Campania, with the inauguration of the energy recovery incinerator in Acerra we have definitively overcome the crisis.’

30 September 2010: ‘The government has totally resolved the problem of waste.’

22 October 2010: ‘Within ten days the situation in Terzigno will be back to normal.’

28 October 2010: ‘In three days there will be no more garbage in Naples.’

2 November 2010: ‘We made a commitment, we resolved it all in a few days.’

Though the last statement was made on 2 November, in December there were still 3,000 tons of garbage in Naples and 8,000 tons throughout the province. When you hear ‘Terzigno’, when you see people blocking the trucks and you wonder why they are protesting, why they are making such a racket, remember that their desperation is generated by the fear of being poisoned.