FLORENCE — After two days of heavy rain in November of 1966, the muddy waters of the Arno, the great Tuscan river flowing through Florence, flooded the city’s historic center. Mixing with oil and sewage, the sludge rose up to 3 meters (10 feet), destroying ancient artworks and manuscripts and displacing hundreds of people. The golden anniversary of the flood last month was a grim reminder of the challenges the country faces after a series of powerful earthquakes this year killed hundreds and reduced entire towns to rubble in the nation’s center.
The earthquakes have renewed skepticism about the ability of the debt-strapped Italian government to preserve its architectural treasures and rebuild efficiently, while the results of a constitutional reform referendum on Dec. 4 may make recovery even more difficult.
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After a 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit the Marche and Umbria regions at the end of August, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi assured the public that his government will restore the damaged areas.
“We will rebuild everything — the houses, the churches, the shops,” he reiterated just days after the medieval town of Norcia was hit by a 6.6-magnitude tremor, leaving more than 22,000 people homeless. Yet how quickly this can be done remains in question. As aftershocks continue and the first wave of frost and snow set to hit the region, hundreds of residents reportedly still remain in tents. Similarly, the 2009 earthquake near the city of L’Aquila, which killed more than 300 and left around 60,000 homeless, resulted in months of tent housing despite promises of speedy relocation.
Unlawful building practices, organized crime and painfully slow bureaucracy are among the challenges that have led many to question the government’s promises to ensure Italy’s buildings and citizens remain unharmed during future seismic activity.
[ Images from the August earthquake .]
This weekend’s constitutional reform referendum could shape the course of earthquake reconstruction. Renzi has staked his premiership on passage, which he says is needed to streamline a government that is inefficient, contributes to stagnant growth and high unemployment. A former mayor of Florence — the birthplace of the Renaissance — Renzi claims the referendum will be a transformative event for the country. Critics, however, warn that Renzi’s proposal hearkens to another son of Florence, Niccolò Machiavelli. They say approving the referendum may limit the power of the senate and override vital checks and balances, thus nurturing corruption.
“The senate would then be made of representatives of regional and local administrations, and this is the layer of government that’s most corrupt in Italy” says Marcus How, a senior political analyst for ViennEast Ltd., a regional risk consultancy. “It’s basically going to become a viper’s nest of vested interests, so in a sense, the actual input the senate would have on legislation, although it would be more limited, would probably be more negative.”
Corrupt regional and local officials would have the ability to influence future reconstruction funding, such as that contained in the 2017 budget still awaiting approval, adds How. “That said, most of the corruption will mainly occur ‘on-site’ as mafia clans try to muscle in on public contracts.”
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Earthquake reconstruction zones are already rife with unlawful construction that put residents in danger. In Italy, such construction occurs at “dimensions unparalleled in other advanced economies,” according to a report from the government statistics office. The collapse of public buildings, notably a school and hospital in Amatrice built to withstand seismic activity only four years ago recently triggered a criminal investigation into alleged violations of building regulations. After the L’Aquila earthquake, a European Parliament report found that part of the money allotted for reconstruction went to companies with ties to the mafia.
“We know that in the past half of what was spent on similar efforts has been taken by the mafia or wasted through Italian bureaucracy” says Marc DiDomenico, director of the Florence Institute of Design International, which started a fundraiser for towns damaged by earthquakes. “That’s what happens and that’s how people do business.”
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