Campaigners yesterday attacked the government’s environmental record during its first year in power, claiming that six Greek cities were among the most polluted in Europe, while blasting the poor state of waste treatment and recycling.
“Although we could not expect clear results within a year, it is obvious that the environment is not on the political agenda,” said Nikos Haralambidis, director of the Greek branch of Greenpeace, during a joint press conference by eight environmental organizations.
The common complaint among campaigners yesterday was that, despite repeated efforts, Public Works and Environment Minister Giorgos Souflias was not responding to their appeals for improvements to Greece’s environmental record.
Meanwhile, they claimed, six Greek cities (Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Iraklion, Ioannina and Larissa) remained among the top 10 European cities whose air contained the most suspended pollution particles. Haralambidis also charged an absence of regulations in place to reduce, or at least limit, the number of private cars in circulation, and that Greece had Europe’s highest registration rate of high-powered sports utility vehicles.
Campaigners also highlighted the fact that, although the European Union sets specific recycling targets for member states, the arguments in Greece were still centered on where the next landfill would be created so that garbage could be buried. They blasted plans announced last month by the Athens Water and Sewage Company (EYDAP) to incinerate treated sewage on the islet of Psyttaleia, off Piraeus, until an additional treatment plant was built there in mid-2007. Campaigners said the burning of the sludge would release harmful dioxins into the environment.
The government was further attacked over its lack of action in ecological matters, with the head of WWF in Greece, Dimitris Karavellas, claiming that the boundaries for areas of natural beauty and 27 national parks have not yet been set and their management boards not yet assigned, thereby leaving the areas to their fate.