Prodi announces plans to tackle rubbish crisis

Emergency steps to deal with the growing backlog of rubbish piling up on Naples' streets were announced today by prime minister Romano Prodi.

Three incinerators will be reserved specially for the area and other Italian regions will be asked to help dispose of the waste.

Mr Prodi also created the post of rubbish commissioner, putting a former national police chief in charge of the crisis.

The moves were announced after another night of violent protests between demonstrators and police at the site of the Pianura dump outside Naples. Officials want to re-open it after more than a decade to deal with the backlog.

Collections stopped in the city and surrounding Campania region last month because the dumps were full.

For around 14 years, Naples has regularly endured similar crises, blamed by officials on organised crime's hold on collections, and a powerless and inefficient bureaucracy.

Today Mr Prodi said he wanted to "make Italy completely self-sufficient in terms of rubbish disposal, avoiding exportation".

He said the three incinerators would be designated for the region while a "sufficient" number of dumps would also be designated.

He said that in the short term however, other Italian regions could volunteer to take Naples' waste to ease the crisis. Already, the northern Valle d'Aosta has offered to help, news reports said.

However, there remained many questions about how soon the incinerators could be operational and where the dumps would be located since previous efforts to create new sites or reopen old ones had been met with resident protests.

Yesterday, army engineers used bulldozers to scoop up waste from the streets of Caserta, near Naples, working mainly around schools that reopened after the Christmas break.

With rubbish accumulating across the city, residents have taken to burning the stinking mounds, raising fears of toxic fumes.