Taranto (Italy) (AFP)

With the sea in the background, mountaineers set up a giant awning, the largest in the world, above the former Ilva factory in Taranto in southern Italy. A titanic project for the European steel group ArcelorMittal, which has undertaken to clean up and restart the most polluting plant in the country.

Vacationers on the beach facing the steel mill have little desire to jump into the water or enjoy local shells.

This Puglia site is at the heart of a legal battle for or against its closure. According to experts quoted by the prosecutor's office, of the 11,500 deaths recorded nearby between 2004 and 2010, 7,500 were caused by cardio-respiratory diseases and cancers attributable to toxic emissions from blast furnaces.

By taking over this steel plant, the largest in Europe, in November, ArcelorMittal has promised to invest 2.4 billion euros over five years, half of which will bring it back to acceptable environmental standards by 2024.

But the Italian Parliament, under the leadership of the Five Star Movement (M5S), revoked in June the "criminal and administrative immunity" available to the plant, with the obligation of closure on 6 September.

ArcelorMittal Chief Financial Officer Aditya Mittal is confident that the government will adopt "new legislation to restore immunity". But with the current political crisis, nothing is guaranteed now.

- Zero emissions target -

ArcelorMittal may have to throw in the towel while its projects include a brand new material transportation system and new towers for steelmaking.

Red and black dust covers balconies and playgrounds in the neighboring neighborhoods of Tamburi and Paul VI. The inhabitants shut themselves up at their homes and the schools barricaded themselves when the wind blows in their direction.

The dust emanates enormous piles of coal and iron ore up to 20 meters high, which extend on the equivalent of 56 football fields.

Work is underway to cover them with a roof 480 meters long by 250 meters wide and 80 meters high.

Consisting of 20,000 tons of steel, it will be "the largest structure of its kind in the world" with "the objective of ensuring zero dust emissions", explains to AFP Henri-Pierre Orsini, in charge of the sanitation plan which also plans to reduce releases of metals, dioxins and polluted water.

ArcelorMittal organizes visits for the workers and their families to try to make forget the multiple graves of the cemetery just in front.

The former Ilva, which employs 12,000 people, is strategic for a city where the unemployment rate is twice the national average, at around 20%.

But the buyer is struggling to win back the hearts.

This summer, he laid off 1,400 workers after a slowdown in the market and the prosecutor's office launched an investigation into the death of a worker in the fall of a crane.

- The prophecy -

Even if ArcelorMittal strives to reduce pollutant emissions below European levels, they will never be totally eliminated.

"Of course this factory is a huge economic resource, but are we all supposed to die to save jobs?" Says 64-year-old retiree Giuliana Tomaselli, watching the factory's chimneys from the beach.

Many families are victims of an abnormally high incidence of cancers and respiratory diseases - 21,313 new cases between 2006 and 2012 in the department - and believe that the plant, controlled by the State until 1995, must close.

"They fed the families with this plant, but they took so much away from the others," says Angelo Di Ponzio, 46, who lost his son Giorgio, 15, in January after three years of fighting cancer.

Giorgio was born in the Paul VI district, named after the Pope who held a Christmas Mass in 1968 in the factory, a few years after its opening, saying that "the man is worth more than the machines and what they produce" . Prophetic statements in light of today's negligence charges against the state and the site's successive owners.

© 2019 AFP