The region of Mesogeia, in eastern Attica, continues to have one of the country’s most inadequate systems of waste management, despite a series of warnings from Brussels to comply with European Union standards or face huge fines, Kathimerini has revealed.

The latest rap from the European Commission came in a letter last month, seen by Kathimerini, in which officials call for waste-management projects to be completed by 2010, saying that the 2013 deadline cited by Greek authorities is unacceptable. “The specified time period is more than adequate for the necessary action to be taken,” the letter said. In the same letter, the EC asks for semi-annual reports on the progress of construction of new infrastructure in Artemida, Markopoulo, Nea Makri, Koropi and Rafina. In many of these communities, sewage tanks are regularly emptied through the local drainage network – an illegal practice that poses a risk to public health.