Situation on the island of Corfu is beyond description: plastic bags bursting with rubbish and garbage have been pilling up all over the town of Corfu and the whole island. The heat wave of last week has made things worse: unbearable smell, millions of flies, public health at risk. Thousands of local businessmen are desperate. With the garbage literally at their doorstep some locals closed their business until the situation improves.
A local pizzeria announced “we close due to the volume of garbage opposite our restaurant – thank you for your understanding.”
And tour operators threaten to cancel flights to the island. The economic cost is already beyond calculation.
An unbearable situation for two weeks now and the Corfu residents send SOS.
And so I received an e-mail this morning by an expat who wrote: “I am not sure whether you can help the island of Corfu,” and then he described the situation in full detail and stressed “Corfu reputation as one of Greece’s gems is rapidly disappearing.”
He asked “Who knows what the local authorities are doing (if anything) or central government. If not dealt with immediately there will be a serious Health problem !!!”
The situation came up after residents of Temploni blocked the landfill of Temploni saying that it was “over filled” and that it had to be either “rehabilitated according to EU standards or relocated.”
Together with local MPs and garbage management officials, Interior Minister Panagiotis Kouroublis flew to the Ionian island on Monday, met with local authorities and also visited the landfill.
He asked the residents of Temploni to show tolerance for 2-3 months until the action plan and the road map for garbage management goes into effect an offered them a provisional garbage selection machine until the plan implemented. He admitted that the residents were right about the issue as “the central state and the local authorities had been neglecting this problem, had not implement the necessary standards to protects the residents and the environment.”
The minister’s and local authorities’ promises apparently did not convince the Temploni residents, no compromise solution was found by Monday afternoon.
Meanwhile, residents of Lefkimi are in uproar opposing the opening of a provisional landfill nearby.
According to CorfuPress, garbage collection from the streets, the squares and touristical prominent public places started Monday midnight. However with Temploni landfill closed, everyone wonders where will the garbage land.
The Mayor, from Corfu, ellected a year ago promised to solve this Problem????
I suggest to bring the rubbish to his privat garden, for sure he has a big one.
Perhaps we could club together and raise the money to send Schaeuble there for a holiday, preferably at the hottest, smelliest and most disgusting time. It would be a useful preparation for him, to prepare for his afterlife.
I can confirm that the rubbish was being moved somewhere….heaven knows where….on Monday evening. Four dustcarts passed me on the road out of town trailing an unbelievable stink in their wake.
thank you – for fresh air come to Athens…
Only the chapel of St George on the top of Lykavittos could be said to have fresh air!
We were thinking of holidaying in Corfu in August, this has really put me off. There are reviews all over tripadvisor website talking about all the rubbish – this is such a shame I hope it gets sorted, tourism is your biggest economy if the island is dirty and gets bad reputation you will lose the tourism and the economy will get even worse. This is really sad, and probably made worse by the fact the EU has destroyed your economy. Hopefully now us Brits have voted out of the EU other countries will follow and you can get the Drakmar back and your economy will eventually get better. 🙁