Naples' Garbage Crisis Worsens
Pastor Dale Morgan
Naples' Garbage Crisis Worsens*
The Associated Press
Thursday, May 24, 2007; 2:52 PM
NAPLES, Italy -- Naples' garbage crisis may worsen with the planned
weekend closure of the only working dump in the area and piles of trash
growing higher, officials said Thursday.
The bleak assessment came a day after President Giorgio Napolitano
warned that Naples risked an "ecological and health disaster" unless
authorities worked out where to put tons of garbage that has been piling
up for nearly two weeks.
Full dumps have prevented collectors from hauling away trash, and local
communities have stymied government attempts to construct and operate
more of the facilities.
On Saturday, authorities plan to shut the dump at Villaricca, north of
Naples, exacerbating the situation, according to the office of the
government-appointed "garbage czar," Guido Bertolaso. The Villaricca
dump has collected rubbish from the southern Campania region for months
and is now full.
The Campania region _ home to the luxurious Amalfi Coast but also the
slums of Naples _ has been plagued by a number of garbage crises in
recent years. Dumps fill up, and local communities block efforts to
build new ones or create temporary storage sites. In 2004, a rubbish
crisis prompted weeks of protests.
In a letter published Wednesday in the financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore,
Napolitano appealed for a quick solution, warning that further delay
would "precipitate an ecological and health disaster, with serious
economic and labor repercussions."
He also lamented the "absurd" acts of vandalism that have accompanied
the crisis _ an apparent reference to the fires residents set last week
to burn the trash.
Fire brigades have said they put out hundreds of fires in the area in
recent days. The burning of chemicals _ which can release toxic smoke _
have added to the already putrid smell of decomposing garbage.