The effects of the garbage strike are obvious in Marseille. In order to deal with the situation, the prefecture of the Bouches-du-Rhône department has made an unusual decision.
Marseille – Because mountains of rubbish continue to pile up on the streets in the Mediterranean metropolis of Marseille after a strike, the police have made the garbage collection work.
From Thursday on, the staff has to restore public order – therefore the people are requested for three days, the prefecture of the Bouches-du-Rhône department decreed on Wednesday evening.
Thousands of tons of household waste that has been on the streets since the start of the strikes on September 27th endangered health and public safety, so the reason for the unusual step in France’s second largest city.
Residents reacted with relief to the intervention. It was no longer bearable, wrote a woman on Twitter – it just looked terrible on the street after 13 days without garbage collection. “I pray that the garbage collection will come tomorrow.” Another woman described it as incomprehensible that in the middle of the Corona crisis – with all the strict requirements – garbage could pile up in the streets of Marseille for weeks. Almost every year the garbage disposal in the city is on strike – this time it was about longer working hours.
Various political levels were responsible for what the media said was the “garbage crisis” in Marseille. In a letter to President Emmanuel Macron, the mayor called for responsibility to be transferred back from the region to the municipality. The garbage emergency worsened when a storm earlier this week washed heaps of rubbish onto the beaches and into the sea. dpa
