Italy unveils plan to tackle Naples waste crisis

Archiv – The Italian government vowed on Monday to be ready with a ’radical’ solution within 24 hours on the Naples trash emergency that has continued for several years. As part of the plan, the Italian government named one of Italy’s most decorated policemen on Tuesday to tackle the Naples waste crisis.Italy | The Italian government vowed on Monday to be ready with a ’radical’ solution within 24 hours on the Naples trash emergency that has continued for several years. As part of the plan, the Italian government named one of Italy’s most decorated policemen on Tuesday to tackle the Naples waste crisis.
Ex-national police chief Gianni De Gennaro, 59, was given a three-month mandate to clean up the Campania region, bringing new systems on line and banishing the shadow of the Camorra crime syndicate, which makes a lucrative business out of waste recycling. As waste czar, he will have ’full powers’ to see that ’a permanent solution’ is found to Campania’s recurrent waste woes, Italian Premier Romano Prodi said.
De Gennaro, who made his name working with slain anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone and ended a Camorra turf war three years ago, will have use of the Italian army. The Italian government has already found several local sites to dump the rubbish clogging the streets of Naples and Campania, Prodi said. Three new incinerators will be built to receive waste, he added.
Local mayors will have the same term as De Gennaro, three months, to introduce recycling schemes across the region, on pain of being put under government commissioners. All the existing consortia that handle waste business — many of them suspected of Mob links — will be replaced by new firms, Prodi said.
The premier unveiled his plans amid news of fresh clashes between protesters and police outside a dump that is to be reopened to take the first batches of waste. The landfill site was closed in 1996 with a pledge to turn it into a golf course. But local residents say the waste inside it is still dangerous.