Ten Years On, Amatrice's Reconstruction Still Lags

The central Italian town of Amatrice gathered on Monday to mark the tenth anniversary of the earthquake that killed hundreds and destroyed much of the historic centre, but the memorial was shadowed by a stark accounting of what remains undone. According to the Guardian, as of April two-thirds of planned public projects in the town had yet to begin, a figure that rises to seven in ten in the hardest-hit areas.

The slow pace of rebuilding in Amatrice has become a recurring theme in foreign coverage of Italian disaster management, and it carries a particular resonance for the South. Puglia, like much of the Mezzogiorno, sits on seismic and infrastructural fault lines of its own, and regional officials have long pointed to central Italy's halting recovery as a cautionary tale in debates over how public money is spent after emergencies.

The Guardian's report notes the anniversary mass was held as residents continue to live in temporary housing a decade on. The gap between official pledges and on-the-ground reality, the paper suggests, has eroded public trust in the state's capacity to rebuild.