Naples trash problem 'critical', protest mount

The official in charge of a trash emergency in Naples admitted on Friday that the situation was "critical" as protests mounted against the opening of new dump sites in the surrounding region of Campania.

Speaking after a meeting with Premier Romano Prodi, Civil Protection chief and government-appointed refuse emergency commissioner Guido Bertolaso said that "we will continue efforts to avoid a definitive collapse".

"It's not my style to abandon ship, even when it's sinking," Bertolaso added.

The government this week ordered the temporary reopening of a major tip in the Campania town of Ariano Irpino to help deal with the refuse that has been mounting up in and around Naples.

The site, which was closed down three years ago, will be reopened for 20 days.

The news sparked immediate protests in the town and on Thursday, when Bertolaso travelled down to talk to local officials about the project, his car was attacked.

Some 100 protesters blocked the commissioner's vehicle, kicking and punching it and spitting at the official.

The protest was condemned by the government and at least 20 people have been placed under investigation.

Ariano Irpino Mayor Domenico Gambacorta said on Friday that Prodi had phoned him to express concern over the incident and request "responsible" behaviour.

The mayor said he told the premier of the town's "total and irremovable opposition" to the reopening of the tip, which has been sealed off since 2004 amid a probe into alleged misdeeds by past managers.

Meanwhile, more than 200 protesters converged on Naples city hall to stage a separate demonstration in which they denounced the region's rubbish tips and waste incinerators as a health hazard.

A group of demonstrators burst into the building via a secondary entrance and charged up to the second floor, where they hung a banner from the window which read, "Incinerators and dumps cause pollution and death".

Other protesters tipped bags of rotting rubbish out onto the steps leading into the main entrance.

Naples centre-left Mayor Rosa Jervolino Russo rapped the protesters, saying that "radical and utopian behaviour won't resolve anything".

"We have to respect the health of citizens and the environment and we must find solutions because the situation on the streets is explosive and we are making ourselves ridiculous in the eyes of the world," she said.

The 70-year-old mayor, who was re-elected to a second five-year term last year, said the only solution to Campania's recurrent trash emergencies was to build more incinerators.

But protesters have been fighting new incinerators out of fear they will not meet acceptable health and environmental standards in a region where refuse-disposal problems have already been linked to an increase in cancer deaths.

In the meantime, residents in Campania cities and towns are regularly left with refuse piling up in the streets outside their homes for days on end, with nowhere to take it.

CAMORRA INVOLVED.

Campania's rubbish crisis also has more sinister overtones due to the involvement of the Neapolitan Mafia, known as the Camorra.

Trash disposal is one of the Camorra's most lucrative businesses and the organisation has created hundreds of illegal dumps in the region where it often buries or burns dangerous refuse.

Anti-mafia officials warned recently that the Camorra was actively sabotaging plans to build incinerators because it would undermine its dumping business.

According to Italian environmental organisation Legambiente, waste trafficking nets organised crime groups some 3.2 billion euros a year.