Pyrgos grappling with riverside health hazard

Local authorities in the town of Pyrgos in southern Greece are commissioning a study on ways to manage a veritable health bomb, consisting of 100,000 plastic-wrapped bales of garbage located, for about 10 years now, in the area of Potoki, next to the Alfeios River.

The location is next to the Pyrgos-Kyparissia national road and near residential areas, arable land, schools and a protected Natura area.

Pyrgos Mayor Takis Antonakopoulos said, “Packaged waste is now a permanent source of pollution and a significant threat to public health,” adding that there is no such situation elsewhere in the country.

He stressed that the method of baling solid waste was used in previous years to deal with the problem of waste management in Pyrgos. However, these garbage bales, he said, should be disposed of after around 18 months.

The study is expected to be completed this fall.