Sewage disposal stalemate
Athens’s burgeoning waste disposal problem was aggravated yesterday after a committee of local authorities from western Attica backed a refusal by Ano Liosia’s municipal authorities to accommodate thousands of tons of treated sewage in its local landfill. Meanwhile Athens’s top prosecutor Dimitris Papangelopoulos was expected to launch the necessary legal action to ensure the transfer of the sludge to the landfill, following Wednesday’s pledge by Public Works Minister Giorgos Souflias «to enforce the law.» The committee also supported Ano Liosia Municipality’s objection to the creation of a new landfill in Fili, western Attica. It is backing the municipality’s appeal against a Council of State ruling allowing the temporary transfer of the sludge – currently sitting on the islet of Psyttaleia, off Piraeus – to the Ano Liosia dump. Ano Liosia authorities have also threatened to close off the street leading to the landfill on June 26, the day after the expiry of their ultimatum to the government to make public its plans for constructing new landfills.
