Firefighters in Naples struggled to put out dozens of piles of rubbish set ablaze overnight on Tuesday as Italian soldiers began cleaning up an estimated 3,000 tons of waste on the streets.
Troops from the Garibaldi brigade began cleaning in the Gianturco neighbourhood, an eastern suburb of the southern Italian city, after being deployed in the area on Monday on orders from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Six removal vehicles and 18 soldiers could be seen working in the area.
The Italian government has sent a total of 160 soldiers to Naples to deal with the emergency, which has been caused by the poor functioning of the region's waste disposal network and a lack of incinerators.
"The problem won't be resolved by the army. Their intervention is not decisive and the impact will be limited," Paolo Giacomelli, a sanitary official for the local administration in Naples, told reporters.
Berlusconi has repeatedly promised to clean up the city since being re-elected in 2008 after the country's previous centre-left government failed to deal with the waste emergency.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
