Landfill pollution. Failure to take necessary measures to protect citizens. Violation of the right to respect for private life and home)
JUDGMENT
Locascia and others v. Italy 19.10.2023 (app. no. 35648/10)
SUMMARY
Waste treatment and disposal in the Campania region of Italy. Pollution from a sanitary landfill. Respect for privacy.
The domestic authorities had failed to ensure the proper functioning of waste collection, treatment and disposal services during a state of emergency, which had been in place for more than 15 years, due to the waste management crisis affecting the region of Campania, where the applicants lived.
Relying in particular on Article 8 (right to respect for private life), the applicants claimed that the Italian authorities had failed to ensure the proper functioning of the public waste collection, treatment and disposal service and to secure and clean the landfill, causing serious damage to the environment, endangering their health and harming their privacy.
The Court found that the applicants had not demonstrated whether and to what extent the shortcomings on the part of the national authorities had a direct impact on their homes and private lives after the end of the state of emergency, as of 1 January 2010. It therefore held that no there has been a breach of Article 8 relating to the management of waste collection, treatment and disposal services since that date.
As regards the landfill, the Court held that the Italian authorities did not take the necessary measures to protect the applicants’ right to privacy from the environmental pollution it causes. It therefore found a violation of the substantive part of Article 8 of the ECHR.
The Court found in particular that litter pollution had a negative impact on the personal well-being of the applicants during the waste crisis from 1994 to 2009 and that this situation had continued in relation to the landfill, which the Italian authorities to date they have not yet secured or cleared.
PROVISION
Article 8
PRINCIPAL FACTS
The applicants are 19 Italian nationals who were born between 1941 and 1982 and live in Caserta
and San Nicola La Strada (Campania, Italy).
In 1994 a state of emergency was declared in the Campania region to tackle serious problems with
the disposal of municipal solid waste. What became known as the “waste management crisis” (crisi
dei rifiuti) went on for the next 15 years.
In particular, the refuse collection services in Caserta and San Nicola La Strada were repeatedly
interrupted from the end of 2007 to May 2008. Large quantities of rubbish accumulated along public
roads, and the local authorities had to take emergency measures including the temporary closure of
nursery schools, schools, universities and local markets and the removal of refuse to temporary
storage areas.
In 2010, when the state of emergency ended, more measures were taken. These included
constructing new refuse and disposal facilities and carrying out investigations to map out areas
affected by pollution from waste. An emergency action plan was also set up to dispose of baled
waste (known as “ecobales”.)
In the meantime, inspections of privately-owned refuse treatment and disposal plants located in
Caserta were carried out to see whether they could be used to cope with the crisis. One of the plants
under consideration, in operation since the late 1980s, was in the Lo Uttaro area near the applicants’
homes. However, a 2001 report stated that the Lo Uttaro area was “absolutely unsuitable” for a new
plant as the landfill had not been complying with environmental regulations. It had been receiving
significantly larger quantities of refuse than had been authorised. In 2005 a decontamination plan
was approved.
Despite the plan (and the closure of the plant), in 2007 the authorities gave authorisation to carry
out disposal of non-hazardous waste at the landfill site.
Judicial and administrative proceedings, spanning the years 2005 to 2020 found that the Lo Uttaro
area had been a risk to public health, particularly as regards groundwater. The concentration of a
number of toxic substances in the groundwater had also led the judicial and administrative
authorities, from 2013 to 2019, to repeatedly ban the use of groundwater and cultivation in the
area.
As of 2020 no work to secure and clean up the Lo Uttaro area has as yet been carried out and no
clear timeframe has been set.
In their submissions to the European Court, the applicants relied on a number of official documents,
including judgments by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), reports from
parliamentary inquiries and scientific studies. These documents found that the waste crisis had put
human health in danger, increasing the risk of developing cancer or congenital malformations for
generations to come, while there had been a long pattern of problems in managerial and monitoring
activities at the Lo Uttaro site.
THE DECISION OF THE COURT…
Firstly, the Court rejected the Government’s argument that the applicants had not used all the legal
avenues available at national level. It found that the remedies referred to by the Government could
have provided only partial redress for the applicants’ complaints of environmental damage. Nor had
the Government provided domestic-court decisions showing that the applicants would have had any
chance of success if they had used the remedies suggested.
Refuse management
The Court noted that Caserta and San Nicola La Strada, where the applicants live, had been affected
by the waste management crisis from 1994 to 2009. During that time the applicants had been forced
to live in an environment polluted by refuse piled up along the streets and by the temporary refuse
storage sites.
It found that such exposure to waste, in breach of safety standards, had made the applicants more
vulnerable to various illnesses. That finding was supported by the scientific studies submitted by the
applicants, recognised by the CJEU and corroborated in a parliamentary inquiry report of 2013.
The Italian authorities had in effect been unable to ensure the proper functioning of the refuse
collection, treatment and disposal services during the state of emergency in the Campania region
from 11 February 1994 to 31 December 2009 and had therefore failed to take all the measures
necessary for the effective protection of the applicants’ right to respect for their homes and private
lives, in violation of Article 8.
However, the Court found that the applicants had not proven whether and to what extent those
shortcomings had had a direct impact on their homes and private lives following the end of the state
of emergency, from 1 January 2010. It therefore held that there had been no violation of Article 8 as
regards management of the refuse collection, treatment and disposal services from that date.
Landfill site
The official documents provided by the parties showed that the Lo Uttaro site had caused serious
environmental pollution due to approximately 20 years of illegal refuse disposal. Indeed, the
authorities had been aware since 2001 that the refuse-disposal plant was a serious hazard, yet
authorisation was given in 2007 to use the landfill site to dispose of non-hazardous waste, thus
worsening the environmental damage.
That situation, leading to repeated bans on the use of groundwater, had to have directly impacted
the personal well-being of those living in Caserta and San Nicola La Strada, such as the applicants.
The documents, moreover, highlighted that even though the plant had been closed in 2007, the
waste had continued to endanger the applicants’ health. According to the latest information
available, the projects put in place to secure and clean up had still not been fully implemented and
there was no clear time-frame to do so.
The Court therefore held that the Italian authorities had failed to take the necessary measures to
protect the applicants’ right to private life against the environmental pollution caused by the Lo
Uttaro landfill site, in violation of Article 8 (substantive aspect).
On the other hand, the Court held that there had been no violation of Article 8 of the Convention
(procedural aspect) as regards an alleged failure to provide the applicants with information on the
environmental pollution caused by the Lo Uttaro landfill site. That situation had to have been public
knowledge, via the parliamentary inquiries held in 2007 and 2013, various orders issued by the
mayors of Caserta and San Nicola La Strada and press releases published by the prosecuting
authorities in the years 2013 to 2019.
Just satisfaction (Article 41)
The Court held that the finding of a violation constituted in itself sufficient just satisfaction for any
non-pecuniary damage sustained by the applicants.
