Greece in the dumps over trash
Recent clashes in Keratea, southeast of Athens, between riot police and local residents protesting the construction of a new landfill in the area are dangerous and unacceptable. It has been over a decade now since the Greek state designated the areas where Attica’s new sanitary landfills will be built. Sadly, reactions by locals combined with a lack of courage and extreme mismanagement on the part of Greece’s politicians have so far delayed the projects and brought the country to an impasse on the crucial issue of waste management. Understandable as the residents’ reactions may be, we can no longer tolerate this situation, which is reminiscent of a Third World country. Failure to comply with European Union regulations means that Greece has had to pay huge fines to Brussels. Further delay means that the country will lose European funds. It is hard to believe that locals and police are exchanging fire and Molotov cocktails, turning the area into a battlefield, as the capital’s streets are being overwhelmed by mountains of rotting garbage.
