This article is part of Politico Global Policy Lab: Living Cities, a collaborative journalism project exploring the future of cities. Chapter 3 of the project is presented by Holcim,
Olbia, Italy – After a deadly flood in the city of Olbia, displacing thousands and killing nine, local politicians vowed that such a tragedy would never happen again.
But nearly a decade later, locals and campaigners say the government has done little to prevent another disaster, even as climate change makes extreme weather events more likely.
Sardinian cities are particularly vulnerable to the effects of flooding, due to a decades-long construction boom in which homes were built without the necessary permits and with little attention paid to safety.
Like many other southern European coastal cities, including Spanish And Portuguese Beach, that build was largely driven by tourism – and aided by local and national complacency.
“Olbia expanded rapidly, very rapidly and largely illegally,” said Stefano Deliperi, president of the Green NGO. legal intervention group,
To accommodate its growing population, pastures and marshes were replaced with concrete and asphalt, and new neighborhoods sprung up in previously waterlogged areas.
Those changes prepared the city for subsequent tragedy, when the worst storm on record hit Sardinia in November 2013, said Barbara Lastoria, engineer Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA). “When you obstruct the flow of a river, you increase the pressure of the water.”
Even as the city struggled to build up its defences, it continued to expand.
Now home to over 60,000 residents, the bustling port city is a tourist attraction looking for work either in the lucrative tourism industry or in its busy port, where thousands of celebrities and wealthy tourists stop each summer on their way to the island’s sandy beaches and glamorous resorts.
This is leading to increasingly urgent calls for local leaders to step up efforts to ensure they are safe from future floods.
But with the city’s plan to reduce flood risk still pending approval at the regional level, many warn it is too little too late.
building disaster
Situated on a floodplain crossed by rivers and canals and surrounded by mountains, Olbia sits in a basin where water naturally concentrates. for decades, Olbia Sometimes the flood shrugs; At most, it was a nuisance.
City councilor Ivana Rusu said, “We were used to seeing floods in the city… During heavy rains, some canals overflowed their banks, some tunnels were constantly flooded.” “We never felt in danger.”
This changed dramatically with the hurricanes of 2013, when nearly 120 mm rain – the equivalent of more than two months’ rainfall – fell on Olbia in a matter of hours.
The city’s waterways broke their banks and flooded entire neighborhoods, killing nine people and displacing Around 2,700 from their homes. damage is estimated €250 million,
Now, every severe weather warning strikes fear into the hearts of residents. “Every time it rains a little more than normal, it wreaks havoc in the whole neighborhood,” said Gianluca Corda, city councilor and principal of the local high school in nearby Baratta, where a Two year old girl and her mother drown,
The city blocked further construction projects in Baratta after the disaster, classifying it as high risk. The neighborhood feels like an unfinished, abandoned project, with grass overtaking vacant lots, and many of its unpaved streets turning off abruptly.
Activists are blaming uncontrolled development for the devastation caused by the floods.
Between the late 1980s and early 2000s, national building code amnesty Italy allowed applicants to legalize illegally built homes by paying a nominal fee to the local government, bypassing fines or criminal penalties.
Around the same time, Olbia passed a flurry of “consolidation plans” that incorporated these unplanned neighborhoods into the city. This allowed the local government to collect taxes from residents – but not necessarily greater municipal oversight.
According to green campaigner Deliperie, the lack of regulation made the 2013 floods a uniquely “unnatural disaster” in which the loss of life could have been prevented.
“For decades, politicians at every level supported uncontrolled urban development – whether legal or illegal,” he said. “And what’s worse is that the tragedy taught them nothing. It is still the same old politics.
a decade of bureaucracy
City leaders say they are taking steps to improve the city’s resilience — but have struggled to make real progress.
Two years after the disaster, the city administration adopted a study detailing Olbia’s flood risk and recommended mitigation measures such as storm basins to collect excess water.
But it soon got lost in Italy’s bureaucratic maze, requiring the regional government to green-light some local regulations. At the end of 2020, finally the Sardinian government thwarted city planningarguing that it would be a negative environmental impact City and surrounding countryside.
While the city awaits approval on a new proposal adopted last year, in December the mayor of Olbia, Settimo Nizzi presented a preliminary public works plan To build a flood control system that allows excess water to be collected upstream and redirected past the city. For the plan to go ahead, it would need approval from both the city council and the regional government.
The plan is the “best possible solution” for Olbia, as it will cause the least amount of disruption to the city while ensuring people’s safety, Nizzi said in an interview.
He added that once the work is complete there will be “no danger” to the residents.
ISPRA’s Lastoria cautioned that the plan, which will take years to implement, is not a silver bullet.
“You cannot eliminate risk. At best you can reduce it, but you will never have zero flood risk, because you cannot predict the impact of future events… As we have seen, It will be very different from what we had seen in the past,” she said.
leave or save
Several Olbia who could already afford to flee to safer districts: between 2011 and 2021, about 2,000 people left High-risk neighborhoods of Olbia.
Those left behind are anxious that officials make the area safe, but know that the glacial pace of Italian bureaucracy means they are in for a long wait.
Patience is running thin.
“The administration said they would take action – so they should do it, and do it quickly,” said Piergiovani Porcu, who lives in Istiqeddu, a neighborhood that suffered heavy damage in 2013.
“People had to take out loans to rebuild their homes and their businesses, some lost everything, even their clothes – and some lost their lives. We can’t wait another 10 years and keep praying nothing bad happens.”
Some are calling for more radical measures.
“The administration should do something that is rarely done in this country – demolish every building in high-risk areas and relocate the residents with some compensation,” said Deliperi, a green campaigner.
“Of course we don’t want people to be put on the street, but if the administration chooses to leave them there, in a few years there will be another flood as devastating as 2013 – or worse.”
This article is part of Politico Global Policy Lab: Living Cities, Chapter 3 of the project is presented by Holcim, This article was prepared by Politico reporters and editors with complete editorial independence. learn more Regarding editorial content submitted by external advertisers. You can sign up for Living Cities Here,