Vicenza (Italy) - Climate Defense Units blocked Miteni factory. Riot squad’s intervention to take away activists.

The joint action aims also at promoting the participation at the initiative in Bonn, November 4-5th, launched by Ende Gelände against one of the biggest lignite mine in Europe.

1 / 11 / 2017

On Tuesday October 31 the Climate Defense Units are back in action to protect people health and the water that has been polluted by PFAS. Yesterday morning, the Angry Animals had blocked the entrance fence of Miteni (Trissino), i.e. the company responsible for the water pollution via perfluoroalkyl substances.

People/Workers and vehicle were denied access by activists seated on the ground in front of the fences that were reclaiming «the immediate requisition of this death production facility».

During the action, also the committee “Genitori attivi contro i Pfas” (i.e. “Active parents against Pfas”) of Brendola joined the activists.

Miteni

A riot squads stepped in after several hours of block and dragged the protesters away from the entrance by force.

Miteni

Miteni caused in the last decades thousands of deaths and sick persons by polluting the ground water that provide hydro-resources to over 350 000 people, poisoning the water from the faucets, but also the agricultural production so that, consequently, the food too has been contaminated. It is, as a matter of fact, a “life-cide” that involves not only the district of Vicenza, but the majority of Veneto.

With the joint action of yesterday, the activists asked for the immediate requisition of the factory and the re-placement of workers within the measures taken to reclaim the area.

«The company must pay for the complete recovery of the ground and the safe water supply. We have to remind that it is not tolerable that people who suffered for decades the consequences of PFAS production have to pay for this reclaim». As third and last request, the Angry Animals revamped the safeguard and the re-placement of Miteni’s workers, that can be re-employed for the recovery of the plant.

It is now well manifest that, on the matter of the Miteni and the resulting pollution, there is a joint negligence of Miteni and Regional Authority of Veneto. The latter concealed for years such a serious issue, even though the Ministry of Health warned the authority yet in 2013.

The pressure of the committee against PFAS and the poisoning of water in Veneto - born approximately a year ago - has determined a change of plan of this same player. For propagandistic and electoral purposes, the Regional Authority boasts to have imposed new filters and to have eliminated the level of perfluoroalkyl substances.

However, it is necessary to remind that few years ago new filters were positioned too, but they revealed to be ineffective, as explained by the Eco-mafia Commission. Analyzing the current situation, the worst figure is the guilty silence that in thirty years caused 1250 deaths dues to PFAS-related diseases, in addition to variations of hematic parameters and increase of risk of illness within the population.

Moreover, the problem linked to the food chain still remains: blood tests of inhabitants show in fact that the harmful substance gathers in time and is not metabolized by human body.

Given the seriousness of the situation, the Climate Defense Units specify the two battlefront: the multinational Miteni and the Regional Authority of Veneto.

 

The joint action aims also at promoting the participation at the initiative in Bonn, November 4-5th, launched by Ende Gelände against one of the biggest lignite mine in Europe.

The international mobilization leads to creating a common struggle against climate change and precedes COP23, which will take place in the previous West Germany capital city.

 

The Climate Defense Units have far-back taken on these days as fundamental within the setting-up of a movement that fights and radically pretends climate and environmental justice, both at a local and a global level. This is why they have publicly announced their attendance and the organization of coaches from the North-East of Italy towards Bonn.

(trad. Anna Clara Basilicò)