Italians keep up protest over load of rubbish
Source: Agencies |
October 25, 2010, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ITALY has put the opening of a new waste dump near Naples on hold after weeks of protests by residents, but demonstrators said the proposal was not enough and garbage continued to pile up in the streets.
The head of the civil protection authority, sent to Naples by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to deal with the latest garbage crisis, has proposed suspending the opening of the new dump "to pursue optimal environmental and health conditions."
Civil Protection chief Guido Bertolaso has made the agreement conditional on the protests ending, but new clashes erupted in the outskirts of Naples as demonstrators demanded legal guarantees the new dump would be abandoned.
Mayors of garbage-strewn towns near the planned new waste site, where residents complain of the stench and of toxic waste coming from an existing dump, refused to sign up to Bertolaso's proposal yesterday.
"Our citizens wanted more guarantees, we could not obtain them so we decided not to sign up to the document," Gennaro Langella, mayor of Boscoreale, told reporters after talks with Bertolaso. A new meeting was scheduled tomorrow.
Protesters clashed with police overnight in Terzigno, the town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius which has been at the heart of the protest. Police said six people were injured in the clashes and two protesters were held.
"The protests must cease immediately," Bertolaso said late on Saturday. "This is the only condition we set."
Bertolaso said Terzigno's existing dump would be cleaned up and would continue to be used until it was full, while the rest of Naples' garbage would be directed to other landfills and to a nearby incinerator.
However, festering rubbish continued to pile up in the streets of Italy's third biggest city and surrounding towns, and exasperated residents set up trash bonfires at night.
Years of political opportunism and corruption as well as the influence of organized crime have turned waste disposal in Naples into a chronic problem which successive governments have failed to solve.
The head of the civil protection authority, sent to Naples by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to deal with the latest garbage crisis, has proposed suspending the opening of the new dump "to pursue optimal environmental and health conditions."
Civil Protection chief Guido Bertolaso has made the agreement conditional on the protests ending, but new clashes erupted in the outskirts of Naples as demonstrators demanded legal guarantees the new dump would be abandoned.
Mayors of garbage-strewn towns near the planned new waste site, where residents complain of the stench and of toxic waste coming from an existing dump, refused to sign up to Bertolaso's proposal yesterday.
"Our citizens wanted more guarantees, we could not obtain them so we decided not to sign up to the document," Gennaro Langella, mayor of Boscoreale, told reporters after talks with Bertolaso. A new meeting was scheduled tomorrow.
Protesters clashed with police overnight in Terzigno, the town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius which has been at the heart of the protest. Police said six people were injured in the clashes and two protesters were held.
"The protests must cease immediately," Bertolaso said late on Saturday. "This is the only condition we set."
Bertolaso said Terzigno's existing dump would be cleaned up and would continue to be used until it was full, while the rest of Naples' garbage would be directed to other landfills and to a nearby incinerator.
However, festering rubbish continued to pile up in the streets of Italy's third biggest city and surrounding towns, and exasperated residents set up trash bonfires at night.
Years of political opportunism and corruption as well as the influence of organized crime have turned waste disposal in Naples into a chronic problem which successive governments have failed to solve.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
