Naples: The Italian government has put the opening of a new waste dump near Naples on hold after weeks of protests by residents, officials said, though hundreds of tonnes of garbage are piling up in the streets of Naples.
The head of the civil protection authority, sent to Naples by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to deal with the latest garbage crisis, agreed with local authorities late on Saturday to suspend the opening of the new dump "to pursue optimal environmental and health conditions."
Civil Protection chief Guido Bertolaso said the proposed agreement, which will be submitted to mayors of the towns at the heart of the protest, was conditional on the protests ending.
"The protests must cease immediately," Bertolaso said late on Saturday.
Clashes
But new clashes between demonstrators and police erupted overnight in Terzigno, the town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius and the site of the proposed new dump, as protesters demanded legal guarantees that it would not be opened.
Two protesters were held by police.
Bertolaso said Terzigno's existing dump will continue to be used until it is full, but the rest of Naples' garbage will be directed to a nearby incinerator.
With festering rubbish piling up in the streets of Italy's third biggest city and surrounding towns, Berlusconi has promised swift action.
But years of political opportunism and corruption and the influence of organised crime have turned waste disposal in Naples into a problem of mounting severity which successive governments have failed to solve.
The EU Environment Commissioner, Janez Potocnik, said in a statement on Saturday that he was very worried about the situation in Naples and that the measures taken by the authorities since the last garbage crisis in 2007 appeared insufficient.
