Italy – army tackles Naples waste chaos

Reuters reports that Italy‘‘s army began shifting mountains of rubbish from schools and streets in the region around Naples on Monday to keep the city from grinding to a halt after more than two weeks of garbage crisis.



Protesters angered at plans to revive a landfill in their neighborhood clashed with police who tried to reopen the site so refuse that has piled up on the city‘‘s streets can be dumped there.



Prime Minister Romano Prodi was due to meet key ministers to decide a plan of action for the city, where a combination of political incompetence, corruption and organized crime have brought waste collection to a halt.



In the latest episode of the trash emergency, which has dogged the region for 14 years, all rubbish dumps in the Naples area are full and a massive incinerator which was supposed to open at the end of 2007 is still not ready.



Garbage collection stopped before Christmas, leaving Neapolitans with no choice but to dump household waste on ever growing piles in the streets.



Many schools, due to reopen on Monday after the Christmas holidays, remained closed amid public health concerns despite the army bulldozing garbage away from buildings. Hundreds of trash piles have been set alight by residents, prompting fears of high levels of cancer-causing dioxin emissions.



Violence has flared several times in recent days between protesters and police outside a landfill in the suburb of Pianura. One man who climbed onto a bulldozer was dragged off by police and beaten with truncheons.



“I climbed up there as a gesture and they hit me in the head and on the back,” said the 30-year-old builder who gave his name as Vincenzo. Protesters are trying to halt the re-opening of the waste dump, which was closed in 1996.



Part of Naples‘‘ problem is that organized crime groups have made il legal waste disposal an industry that was worth 5.8 billion euros ($8.6 billion) in 2006, according to a study by conservation group Legambiente.



The Camorra, the Naples brand of the Italian Mafia, is heavily involved in the transport and disposal of waste. Local authorities say it has benefited from the continuing crisis and may have actively tried to prolong it.



Mafia-controlled waste disposal — by burial or burning — has poisoned the environment so badly that people in some parts of the region are two to three times more likely to get liver cancer than in the rest of the country, according to Italy‘‘s National Research Council.