Porto Torres, great collapse in the roof of the former ironworks

Tonight in Porto Torres a large part of the roof of the former Sardinian Ironworks collapsed .

A large iron and steel plant (closed in 1979), an eco-monster for decades, a stone's throw from the central gatehouse of the former petrochemical plant, between Via Marco Polo and Via Fratelli Vivaldi.

In the former factory where iron rods have been produced since 1961 , this is certainly not the first collapse . Surely the latter will have raised a fuss of asbestos, the main material of which the roof of the structure is made and not only, long and wide at least as long as a football field. Where the remediation, announced for over 40 years, has never started. And where therefore attempts at industrial reconversion have failed in the bud, such as the construction of a nautical pole.

Which without a preparatory site remediation are just a dead letter. The collapse in the former ironworks last night has once again exposed a dramatic reality: the environmental danger of the former industrial sites close to the former petrochemical plant, now Chimica Verde and little else, but where at least reclamation is being carried out and of the old systems there is practically nothing left.

All demolished and razed to the ground , except for the Elastomeri plant, still in production, the last relic of the former Rovelli plant, owned by Eni since 1982. On the industrial perimeter instead decades of good intentions, conferences, promises and money allocated. On paper. In reality, on the former ironworks, on the former cement factory, on the immense former brick complex, on the other dozens of abandoned factories, practically no euro has been allocated for the reclamation. Thousands of tons of rubble, asbestos and hazardous waste loom menacing a stone's throw from Porto Torres.

A Cleaver on Population Health . Sometimes time lends a hand. Like a few weeks ago, when the wind caused the almost 100-metre-high tower of the former cement factory to collapse on the right side (therefore not on the road). But it won't always be like this. If you don't start taking action.