POLITICA
There were also those who staunchly opposed claims that the bridge may not be as stable as it appeared. Reports carried out before the disaster by Autostrade per l’Italia indicated that the bridge was in good condition and the populist party il movimento 5 stelle dismissed the claims that the bridge may be at risk as la favoletta dell'imminente crollo del Ponte Morandi on their website in 2013. The party has, naturally, now taken this off their website.
Although it is certainly not the only country to suffer from ageing infrastructure, the situation in Italy has been forced into the limelight as a result of these recent events. Italy’s long-suffered economic stagnation, however, has limited the capacity of the authorities to appropriately repair, rebuild and ensure the safety of the outdated infrastructure all across the country. In fact, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Italian government’s investment in infrastructure has dropped drastically from $20 billion per year in 2007 to just $5.6 billion in 2018.
While modernising would doubtless cost tens of billions of euros, governments around the world continue to wait for catastrophes such as this before acting. The fatal flaw in this strategy is that disasters such as this are rarely planned for in government budgets and, until infrastructure investment is properly accounted for, lives will continue to be lost as Europe’s outdated infrastructure begins to crumble.
SOURCE: MAURIZIO BOI/FLICKR