Rubbish crisis worsens in Naples as fire crews attacked
Pastor Dale Morgan
Rubbish crisis worsens in Naples as fire crews attacked*
May 17, 2008, 12:14 GMT
Naples, Italy - Despite emergency measures to resolve the rubbish crisis
in the southern Italian city of Naples, the situation worsened Saturday,
with more than 100 fires set to the mountains of garbage and fire crews
attacked as they tried to put them out.
Angry city residents set the fires overnight, which the overburdened
fire service struggled to extinguish.
A television team recorded stones being thrown at one fire crew as it
attempted to put out a fire in the suburb of Barra.
'They are also attacking us because of the mountains of rubbish in the
streets,' one fireman said. 'It's not the first time they have tried to
attack us, and I fear that it will also not be the last.'
Rising temperatures have exacerbated the problem of the stinking mounds
of trash, which contain up to 5,000 tons of material.
At the height of the crisis in January, there were 7,000 tons of rubbish
on the streets of the city of 1 million and the surrounding Campania region.
Neapolitans have reported that the rubbish mountains are hundreds of
metres wide in some streets. They have launched protests against the
city council's plan to set up a new dump on the outskirts of the city.
Italy's new Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has said he will treat
the rubbish crisis as a priority and will discuss it with his cabinet on
Wednesday.
The European Commission has threatened to fine Italy millions of euros
if it does not sort out the 'dramatic refuse crisis.'
The rubbish was left lying in the streets for the first time in the
spring of last year. The crisis returned at Christmas because there were
not enough dumps in which to deposit the rubbish.
The EU's executive arm said that although Italy had set up a commission
to deal with the rubbish problem and that this had improved the
situation somewhat, the government's measures were insufficient to
completely resolve the crisis.