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More than 60 tons of garbage on the ground at the depot facilities, a few tens of meters from Zakynthos airport, were seen as the first image by tourists visiting the island.
The stench is unbearable throughout the area and waste rot poses a risk to public health as ERTnews reports.
Following a lawsuit, the Director of Waste Management of the Municipality of Zakynthos, Mr. D. Tourkakis, was taken into custody to stand before the Prosecutor of Zakynthos. A lawsuit was filed against him, for environmental degradation, by the president of the waste management association of workers, Mr. S. Hariatis, who published images taken from the area.
Mr. Tourkakis was finally released from custody.
The president of the workers, speaking to ERT Zakynthos, complained that “the garbage was placed there for ten days, while after the intervention of the prosecutor, they were collected and put into open trucks within the same area”.
It should be noted, however, that out of the 4 trucks available by the Municipality for the transport of garbage to the waste management unit in Liva, only one is in operation – “and the one with the brake light on”, as the employees typically say – while the other three have become inactive due to faults which can be repaired with little money.
According to the employees’ complaints, the operational condition of the garbage trucks is the same and worse, as only two out of 15 operate, which are used on a 24-hour basis, without stopping, as they make 9 to 10 routes a day. The rest, including brand new vehicles, do not move, because the municipal authority does not give money to repair them. The cost, according to the president of the employees, is negligible.
Mr. Hariatis complains that employees, when they protest and ask for their breaks or refuse to travel with dangerous vehicles, receive blackmail and threats that their contract will not be renewed or that they will go through a sworn administrative examination (EDE). “We are working on terrorism and threats,” he said.
The situation of waste collection in Zakynthos, in the middle of the tourist season, is tragic. Mountains of rubbish, uncollected for days, in many parts of the island, have become “landscapes” of photography and selfies by visitors and places of defamation, not only for Zakynthos but for the whole country.
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Source in Greek and for more photos :-https://www.ertnews.gr/
