The illegal activity that endangers Sicily: there are 720,000 applications for amnesty

There is an intervention plan against the instability but there are too many construction sites still open. In the meantime, the illegal volume on the island is equal to just under six million cubic metres. But tearing down these houses has become a feat: the mayors don’t have the money and those who have tried have ended up under guard

From illegality there is no turning back. The images of the bodies buried under water and debris, coming from Ischia, in Sicily, are well known. The problems as well. In 2018, in Casteldaccia (Palermo), an entire family was swept away by the flooding of the Milicia river. A demolition order had been pending on the rented house, near the mouth, since 2010. But the house in the Dagali district was demolished a year after the tragedy. With nine victims on his conscience (including two children). Between 2004 and 2020, in Sicily, there were over 4,500 demolition orders, but only 950 killings: one in five ordinances are carried out. Furthermore, half of the Municipalities have master plans more than twenty years old.