Greece to bolster pollution penalties
ATHENS (AFP) — The Greek government on Friday said it would bolster inspections and penalties for environment polluters amid growing public indignation following several recent cases of water and air contamination.
A government spokesman announced plans to boost a team of roaming environment inspectors from 19 to 45, and to quadruple the maximum pollution fine from 500,000 euros (713,000 dollars) to two million.
"This is a necessary increase to ensure that sanctions act as a stronger deterrent," government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros told a news briefing.
Environmental awareness spiked in Greece after a shocking wildfire disaster in August in which at least 67 people died and more than 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of forest and farmland were ravaged.
Several thousand Greeks in August participated in a rare environment-related mass protest over the government's failure to contain the fires.
A few days later -- and following its re-election on September 16 -- the government took action on a number of pollution hotspots around the country.
On September 24, the environment ministry slapped a landmark fine of one million euros (1.42 million dollars) on the state-owned Public Power Corporation (PPC) for excessive air pollution at three of its plants, after protests from local residents.
The ministry last month also sent inspectors to a protected lake in northern Greece where scores of wild birds were found dead from suspected bacteria poisoning.
But scientists say the ecosystem of Lake Koroneia is already "near death" because illegal boring by farmers has drawn out groundwater and textile-dyeing factories in the region have been dumping untreated waste into the lake's tributary streams for years,
In October, cleanup crews were sent to Asopos River in Viotia prefecture north of Athens after inspectors found dangerous chemicals being dumped into its waters by neighbouring industrial plants.
Viotia residents had protested about the quality of their drinking water for years.
