Calabria behind in the fight against asbestos abatement. The Region certifies it directly. Responding to a question presented by the group leader of the M5S at Palazzo Campanella, Davide Tavernise, the Citadel offices admit delays in the “implementation timetable in the work schedule”. The failures to comply are attributed to the “epidemiological emergency situation caused by the Covid-19 virus at the time and the limitations for in-person group work”.
The substance is that the regional plan for asbestos in Calabria to date has not been updated or modified. Having a five-year duration, a new Prac should have been approved in May 2022. Moral of the story? A regulatory void. An insult that becomes double if you consider that without the PRAC, the censuses, the mapping and all the necessary steps, the Municipalities have no right to compete for the funds for the reclamation. And to think that the Ministry of the Environment had foreseen the allocation of 385 million euros for the abatement of asbestos in public buildings, in particular for the removal and disposal in schools and hospitals, divided according to the regional allocation coefficients used for the resources of the Development and Cohesion Fund. These interventions should have been carried out by 31 December 2025. Well, the national government found itself forced to revoke the over 43 million loan intended for Calabria. The funds, initially intended only for public buildings, had been remodeled for general asbestos remediation interventions, but were lost due to the “failure to communicate, within the terms, the desire to use these resources”, also for the new destination, by the Region.
