Rabat, Morocco (TMT)- A wave of outrage has befell Morocco following the Moroccan authorities importing 2,500 tons of deemed highly toxic garbage from Italy, garbage arguably carcinogenic.
The garbage arrived last Wednesday from Taverna del Re (located in the vicinity of Napoli) to the Jourf Lasfar port in El Jadida and represents, according to an online petition, “only the first chunk of a total amount of 5 million tons of waste that will be exported from Taverna del Re over a three year period,” following the Moroccan Ministry of Environment “signing a contract to import Italian garbage.”
On Facebook, a video published 6 hours ago featuring a Moroccan residing in Italy alerting Moroccans about what he refers to as “highly carcinogenic garbage” received 60,317 views at the time of writing, including a whooping 4231 shares.
In the wake of the growing outrage, the Moroccan Ministry of Environment reacted in a communiqué saying that the imported garbage, planned to be burned in a cement factory located between Casablanca and Settat, only contains RDF elements, stressing that the imported garbage “is not dangerous.”
Moroccan ecologist Benata Mohamed, president of the association Espace de Solidarité et de Coopération de l’Oriental (ESCO) reacted to the growing wave of fury stressing that “if there really was no danger, the Italians would have managed their waste at home, that’s obvious.”
“Italians are no better off than Moroccans. Why would they avoid the dangers of pollution while we should suffer from it?” wondered Benata.
“It is absurd that Morocco is organizing the COP22 event, aiming to clamp down on pollution by reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases, but at the same time imports pollutant waste. This is really absurd,” Benata added.
“As usual, the authorities in our country keep a ‘very green’ speech on the front, but factually, it’s totally the opposite, ” Benata closed.
The Moroccan Times.
