Prodi gives ‘trash czar’ 4 months to end crisis

[unhappycamper]

Prodi gives ‘trash czar’ 4 months to end crisis
By Sandra Jontz and Lisa M. Novak, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, January 15, 2008

NAPLES, Italy — Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi has appointed a former mob investigator to tackle the trash crisis that has plagued the city and region.

Gianni De Gennaro, former national police chief, took on the role as the region’s “trash czar,” and has four months to devise a plan to ensure similar refuse problems are curbed in the future, according to Italian media reports. Prodi also appointed Italian Gen. Franco Giannini, head of army logistics in the south, as second-in-command.

On Monday, more than 7,000 tons of uncollected garbage still remained throughout the city and its suburbs, according to the ANSA Italian news service, in spite of emergency measures in which officials have shipped about 1,500 tons of trash to islands of Sardinia and Sicily.

The trash crisis in Naples seems to be cyclical, with summer being the worst period, during which it can go uncollected for weeks.

But this fall, when the U.S. Navy noted trash piles did not diminish as they normally do, Navy officials in Naples sought help from the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Public Health Center, based in Portsmouth, Va., said Lt. Cmdr. Wendy Snyder, a Navy Region Europe spokeswoman. The navy had experienced its own problems in getting rid of garbage on the support site base. For now, those experts are collaborating with Italians, analyzing data from health studies done by Italian health experts, she said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51635