Last September 30, the former Sanderson Committee received from the Sicilian Region a copy of the documents exchanged between the Region itself, the Municipality of Messina and ESA, the regional agricultural development body, on the issue of the reclamation and safety of the former Sanderson area. “We have read the documents and we are witnessing a dangerous spillover of responsibility between public actors – comment the representatives of the Committee – With this note it seems right to inform citizens on the state of affairs and on the news resulting from the Committee’s lobbying on the topic.
At the same time we sent an official request to all the parties involved for a public meeting on the topic, to be convened within a month from today, which will serve to give impetus to the definitive reclamation and to discuss the future of the area, for which today the only existing proposals are those presented by our Committee, given the absence of public projects and the recent and appropriate revocation of funding for the exhibition center U Locu da fera”.
In the documents seen by the Committee, the latest initiative is from the Department of Water and Waste of the Sicilian Region, which on 30 September wrote to ESA, with “urgency”, to haveand news on the safety of the former Sanderson area.
This request is the result of the conversation about ten days earlier between the Region and the Municipality of Messina. In fact, in mid-September, the Region had requested an urgent report from the Municipality “on the activities implemented to resolve the problem”. In the request he describes the situation of the former Sanderson through reference to what was written by the ASP of Messina and the former Sanderson Committee on the area.
The ASP reported in June 2024 “a dangerous condition for the health of the population living near the plant”. The Committee has reiterated on several occasions that the area is now an ecological bomb, due to the presence of deteriorated asbestos and the spillage of dangerous sewage. The Municipality responds that it cannot proceed directly with the reclamation, as this obligation falls on the body that owns the area, the ESA, Agricultural Development Agency. For its part, on 11 June 2024 the Municipality published the ordinance with which, recognizing a “problem of protecting the community”, it ordered the ESA to remove the asbestos present in the industrial complex. The Agricultural Development Authority, owner of the area, approved June 13, 2024 the executive project for “definitive safety of the former Sanderson industrial complex”, for a total amount of 900,000 euros.
On this front, exactly 4 months after the approval of the project, we are still awaiting the contract for the awarding of the planned works. “In a situation that everyone deems dangerous for public health, we are witnessing an exchange in which each document merely reflects responsibility” explain the representatives of the former Sanderson Committee. “For this reason we urgently ask the Municipality of Messina, as already agreed on 30 May 2024 during a meeting with the Councils of the 1st and 2nd district in which the councilor Minutoli participated on behalf of the Mayor, to convene a meeting, in the presence of all the bodies involved, to have certain dates on the operations necessary to secure the site. This meeting – adds the Committee – must also serve to discuss a regeneration plan for the area shared with the local community.
We cannot be satisfied with reclamation, which represents only the first step for the future of the area, nor with top-down projects that are not shared with the people who live near the area.
The former Sanderson Committee, together with residents, have developed a clear and concrete vision for the regeneration of the area. The objective is to make the former factory an exemplary case of ecological transition and valorization of memory and local cultural heritage, through projects that protect the environment and offer economic and social opportunities for the residents of Southern Messina” conclude the representatives of the Committee, who invite citizens to celebrate the first year of activity on October 21st, with a social dinner in Tremestieri.