Protests over garbage sites
Environment and Public Works Minister Vasso Papandreou yesterday was stern in her reaction to a highway protest in eastern Attica by residents opposed to plans for waste recycling sites in the area. «I would have expected the residents… not only of eastern Attica, but of the whole of Greece, to have protested years ago against the thousands of illegal landfills across the country which are polluting… the environment,» Papandreou said after residents of Kapandriti and Grammatiko – the two prospective sites for new waste disposal facility – and another six nearby townships blocked the Athens-Lamia national road at the Kapandriti junction for about 30 minutes. Papandreou insisted, however, that residents need not worry, stressing that site construction would involve the use of the latest technologies and follow European Union legislation. Residents claim that the sites slated for the garbage facilities are «geologically inappropriate… due to the unstable upper soil which and subterranean water which flows out into the Marathon Dam.»
