Accusations fly over trash heaps on island of Aegina
A row appears to be building between municipal and central government officials over the growing piles of trash on Aegina.
According to Aegina Mayor Dimitris Mourtzis, the accumulation of tons of trash is due to the Attica Regional Authority’s failure to assign a ferry boat to transport trash off the island to the capital’s landfill, as the municipality can only use vessels that are empty of goods and passengers for this purpose – something that is almost impossible to find in August.
Deputy Regional Governor for the Islands Panagiotis Hatziperos, meanwhile, countered that such a scheme would cost a prohibitive 400,000 euros a year, which is why it has not been approved. And Deputy Minister for Island Policy Nektarios Santorinios told Kathimerini that the Aegina Municipality had been given the green light to use the less crowded early morning and late night ferries from the island to Piraeus to shuttle trash, but demanded use of rush-hour services instead.
In the meantime, residents and tourists will just have to put up with the trash heaps: “There have been problems in previous years as well, especially in August, but it has never been this bad,” says Yiannis Tzevelekos, who has been vacationing at the picturesque holiday island for the past 45 years.
