The piles of waste, resulting from the strike of the agents of the garbage collectors, and the violent bad weather at the beginning of the week produced the dreaded effect: tons of waste washed away by the rains poured into the Mediterranean. Of the 3,000 tonnes that remained to be collected in the city, some are already found on the beaches, but most of the carried away will roam the sea for centuries.
“Ecocide” and “ecological scandal”
“The consequences are dramatic,” revolted Hervé Menchon, deputy for the coast and biodiversity at the town hall of Marseille (PS), who does not have enough harsh words to express it. “Ecocide”, “ecological scandal”, “all this was not inevitable”, accused the elected official, attacking Martine Vassal (LR), the president of the Metropolis, administrative level to which falls the load of waste collection. “It was Martine Vassal’s responsibility to commit additional resources,” he added.
The City charges the Metropolis
Later in the morning, after a meeting with Benoît Payan, elected officials of the municipal executive organized a press conference at the Pharo, in front of the Metropolitan Council. The opportunity for the left-wing municipality to publicly formulate the request for divorce on the issue of waste. “This situation is not acceptable and the Metropolis must take its responsibilities,” said Yannick Ohanessian.
“It’s so much easier”, defended Roland Mouren, vice-president in charge of cleanliness at the Metropolis. “It is the fault of the Metropolis if we have to apply the laws (the garbage collectors, on strike, contested the application of the law of public transformation)? What if it doesn’t go fast enough? I had announced on Friday that the return to normal would take a week. It rained. There is no surprise. The town hall blows on the embers, even after a heavy rain ”.
“Hatred”
In the curative emergency, 15 agents, five machines and skips dispatched by the collection service surveyed the beaches on Tuesday, where the waste washed up. But the sky continues its whims in Marseille, where the mistral is expected for tomorrow, which should carry the waste out to sea.
The fact remains that this sudden, massive and predictable pollution arouses indignation. Annick Girardin, Minister of the Sea, who split from a reaction on social networks.
“It gives us hatred”, summarizes Eric Akopian of the association Clean my calanques. “We are disgusted. We have been doing waste collection for four years and in 48 hours we are starting over from zero. Marseille is better than this war (between City and Metropolis) which separates people and the real question is now that of reducing the consumption of single-use packaging ”. This Wednesday, once again, Eric will meet with volunteers and volunteers, in the middle of the morning on the Prado beaches to compensate for the wanderings of public management.