No to big ships at Fiumicino. Italia Nostra and WWF protest

Italia Nostra and WWF Litorale Laziale against large ships in Fiumicino. They state in a statement, “How many ports are there between Ostia and Fiumicino? How many boats are moored in these ports?”

The project under discussion concerns the construction of “another marina at the mouth of the Tiber to also accommodate much larger and more impactful boats.”

The associations make it known that "along with the port for small boats, next to the old Fiumicino Lighthouse, a port is to be built to accommodate cruise ships; the initial 2009 project did not provide for this. This is not a simple variant to the previously approved project." The new project to accommodate cruise ships as well was also delivered in 2019.

Italia Nostra and WWF say that the viability is meager: the Fiumicino Municipal Administration, they point out, has made efforts in recent years to properly organize the road network, with good results in terms of quality of life. The Ministry of Culture notes that "particular attention will have to be paid to overcome the problem of the presence of the ’out-of-scale’ constituted by cruise ships (characterized by dimensions, shapes and materials alien to the context) in the reality of Isola Sacra, avoiding negative impacts, not only visual, that could arise from the jarring dimensional-volumetric difference from the surrounding ones.

In addition, the seabed is not suitable, as it is deep to accommodate cruise ships: this leads to “major dredging to achieve the bathymetry necessary for the passage of ships, and not only within the port basin,” from which follows “an archaeological risk on the submerged heritage, as the Ministry always observes but also a very strong impact on the marine and coastal environment.”

Pending the opinion of the Ministry of Environment on the aspects related to the alterations caused on the natural environment, the associations express their concern about this project.

They continue, "Another prospect that deeply disturbs us, even if its process still remains long and complex, is the mega commercial port planned north of the Fiumicino Channel. While on March 31 the Council of Ministers finally approved a decree-law that will exclude, in tune with Unesco, the landing of Grandi Navi from the Venice Lagoon, Fiumicino is still expected to welcome other cruise ships (for 230,000 passengers per year), as well as massive cargo ships (for 3 million tons of cargo per year) and ferries (for 565,000 passengers per year)."

“It makes no sense for the huge cruise ships to dock given the saturated road connections between Fiumicino and Rome and the complete lack of rail transport, with which instead the Port of Civitavecchia is equipped, which moreover is also equipped with the direct connection to the highway,” declares Gabriella Villani, President of WWF Litorale Laziale." Finally, Francesco Spada, representative of Italia Nostra Litorale Romano, concludes, “It is with amazement, disbelief and indignation that we take note of the planning of the works in question. These works, if realized, would represent to date, the most disastrous and irresponsible threat to the residual environmental integrity of the Latium coastline, precisely in a historical era that aspires or is forced to achieve sustainability goals. The middle Tyrrhenian coastline at the Tiber delta is, in fact, a geo-morphological low coast system of well-known and scientifically documented, very high vulnerability.”

“How can one, while concepts such as ’ecological transition’ become institutional buzzwords, continue to think about development based on overbuilding and resource consumption? Why not invest instead in the redevelopment of our beautiful coastlines and the promotion of sustainable tourism?” they ask.

Ph.Credit

No to big ships at Fiumicino. Italia Nostra and WWF protest

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