Operations begin to dig Naples out of rubbish crisis
NAPLES, Italy (AFP) — Barges loaded with hundreds of tonnes of rubbish were set to arrive in Sardinia from Naples on Thursday as operations began to end a weeks-old waste disposal crisis in Italy's southern Campania region.
Tensions remained high around a toxic dump in a western Naples suburb that authorities want to reopen, while several hundred people protested near a Sardinian dump against the decision to ship rubbish to landfills there, the ANSA news agency reported.
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi on Tuesday unveiled a campaign to bring a definitive end to a recurring overload of the region's dysfunctional waste disposal system that has seen more than 100,000 tonnes of rubbish accumulate in Campania since late last month.
Under the four-month plan, troops will be deployed to help clean up the hardest hit areas, and rubbish will be trucked to other regions for temporary storage.
Just 500 tonnes of rubbish is en route to Sardinia, the first region to agree to accept some of the overflow.
Meanwhile Thursday in the Naples suburb of Pozzuoli, workers removing trash from around schools and public buildings were given police escorts after days of violence over a plan to reopen the area's dump, ANSA reported.
Protesters continued to block access to Pozzuoli's Pianura landfill following fresh violence Wednesday night, when seven firefighters were injured by powerful firecrackers hurled by assailants into their firetruck.
An interior ministry communique on Thursday accused "bands of hooligans" of provoking much of the violence surrounding the protests.
It said police would reinforce "rapid intervention teams" and the ministry has asked for investigations into the violence that saw running battles between protesters and security forces over the mafia-linked crisis.
Overnight Wednesday, exasperated residents of Campania continued to set fire to piles of rubbish strewn in the streets of their cities and firefighters put out at least 80 blazes, ANSA reported.
Many of the landfills in Campania are controlled by the regional Camorra mafia, who make a lucrative business out of subverting waste-handling procedures and shipping in industrial waste from the north.
Since 1994 when the government decreed an "emergency situation" in the region, several dumps infiltrated by the mafia have been closed and companies investigated, though none has been convicted.
