Rubbish is burnt in the streets near the dump at Chialiano after
protesters and barricades returned to Naples
Posted on 05/07/2008 8:49:29 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
The rubbish crisis in Naples, where heaps of toxic and foul-smelling waste have been left rotting in the streets since Christmas, is heading for the courts after the European Commission announced yesterday that it was taking Italy to the European Court of Justice.
Italy’s Prime Minister-elect, Silvio Berlusconi, responded by promising decisive action to resolve the emergency and avoid EU fines. The developments came as barricades and protests returned to the streets of Naples, amid public fury over the crisis. Firemen have been called out to dozens of fires over the past few days as desperate residents burn the rubbish mountains, which are a growing health risk as warmer weather arrives.
Rubbish is burnt in the streets near the dump at Chialiano after
protesters and barricades returned to Naples
Mountains of uncollected rubbish have become a huge political as
well as environmental issue in Italy
Demonstrators have erected barricades of car wreckages and rubbish in the streets near
dumping sites
Some rubbish has been cleared by the Italian army. But nearly six months on, most of the great heaps of split plastic bags and dustbin liners remain, and so does the stench, with residents covering their faces with handkerchiefs as smoke rises from the festering, burning mounds.
Three landfill sites have been reopened but are already full, and the Campania region’s first new incinerator is not due to begin working until next year. Suburbs where the authorities are trying to reopen other dumps look like war zones, with barricades of overturned rubbish bins, corrugated iron and tyres, manned by menacing young men.
In the run-up to last month’s election campaign Mr Berlusconi blamed the outgoing centre-left Government of Romano Prodi for a disaster that had “damaged the image of Italy in the world”. He promised to hold his first Cabinet meeting in Naples. “This is my problem now,” he said yesterday. About 1,400 tonnes of rubbish is still rotting on the streets of Naples and its suburbs.
President Napolitano is expected to ask Mr Berlusconi today to form a government after his centre-right alliance won a sweeping victory in the general election.
Three months ago Mr Prodi appointed Gianni De Gennaro, Italy’s former police chief, as “extraordinary commissioner” with a brief to find alternative landfills. Mr De Gennaro has identified Chiaiano, in the northern suburbs of Naples, as a landfill site able to take 700,000 tonnes of rubbish. But it will not be ready for two months, and residents have vowed to block rubbish trucks with barricades, fearing that the site will be a health risk. Yesterday they occupied the proposed site and hijacked buses to block streets.
The decision by Brussels to take court action could lead to heavy fines.
A Commission official said: “We are taking Italy to court over its handling of the waste management crisis in the Campania region. We note that proposals are being made by Italy to improve the situation, but on the basis of the timetable given, the Commission is not convinced that this issue will be solved quickly enough”.
The crisis is blamed on overflowing landfill sites controlled by the Camorra, the Naples mafia, which is accused of sabotaging incinerator projects and poisoning the environment through untreated waste to the point where some forms of cancer in the region are three times the national average.
Stavros Dimas, the EU Environment Commissioner, said the Italian plans were unsatisfactory “because they lack sites for treating waste . . . and nothing is planned for sorting rubbish. The implication of organised crime must not conceal the most direct cause, an absence of action and an absence of political will”.
Let’s see, we are talking about the socialist infested EU. Wouldn’t the best solution be to simply slaughter the dirty humans who are generating all this garbage, and thus injuring Mother Gaia?
i spent c. 3 hours in napoli. the phone system didn’t work at all. this comes not as a big surprise. (granted i was there c. 10 years ago).
Why does this remind me of the continual cluster f**k in every major inner city in America?
The garbage has been there since Christmas — PATHIC!! Mussoulini would never have let this outrage happen in the first place.
third world country. And I liked Italy.
So...the Italian people brought back Conservative Berlusconi, tossed out all the Commies, left not a one in office, and now the Socialist Pigs running the EU in Brussels begin their attack before Berlusconi can set matters straight.
Socialist Politics at work.
Ah, “Vedi Napoli e poi muori” - “See Naples and die!” That phrase has had a dark humor to it for several hundred years now. Always was a rough old town. A good friend told me that the only real blot on a wonderful harborscape was a dead horse floating nearby. For some reason she didn’t bring back any pictures...
Probably because her camera was stolen. Same reason I didn't bring back any pictures of Venice.
Huh???????
I seem to remember the Poles electing a couple of conservative brothers to run their country. Brussels got them real good.
yitbos
yitbos
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