POISON STREAM

The Sarno is the most polluted river in Europe. Running a few kilometers north of the archaeological site of Pompeii and flowing into the Gulf of Naples, famous for the Sorrentine peninsula and the island of Capri, the Sarno crosses this vast area with its poisonous miasmas and dark, muddy waters. In recent decades, it has intoxicated the lives and health of two and a half million inhabitants, who have suffered a surge in cases of cancer. Chemical poisons such as mercury, lead, chromium, cadmium and arsenic are regularly spilled directly into the river by the  industries and the sewage network of the entire Sarno plain has never been completed. A century of political immobility, combined with the interference of the Camorra, has led to the inability to find a solution; but now a series of new projects to save the river have just been launched.

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