ITALIAN CITIES 'NOT GETTING GREEN FAST ENOUGH', LEGAMBIENTE
ITALIAN CITIES 'NOT GETTING GREEN FAST ENOUGH', LEGAMBIENTE
(ANSA) - Rome, October 26 - Italian cities are taking too long to get greener, environmental watchdog Legambiente said Monday.
In its 16th annual Urban Ecosystems report, the organization upbraided city councils around the country for making scant improvements in recycling, public transportation, water management and air quality.
According to the report, residents in Italy's urban centers use public transportation an average of one time per week and have no greater access to pedestrian areas or bike paths than they had the year before.
Traffic limitations on average have fallen and street congestion remained practically the same, Legambiente said.
The organization acknowledged that Italian cities had made modest progress with regard to recycling, up 2.79% from last year, but said that the 27% of differentiated waste collected in Italy this year is a far cry from the government's stated target of 50% by the end of 2009.
Leading Italy's eco-friendly urban areas is Verbania, a town in the northern region of Piedmont on the shores of Lake Maggiore.
Legambiente said Verbania jumped from fourth to first place this year on the strength of its recycling program, which covers 73% of urban waste, in addition to ample pedestrian areas and bike paths.
At the foot of the Dolomite mountains, Belluno, in the Veneto region came in second place, followed by Parma which rose to third place from 16th in 2008.
Parma mayor Pietro Vignali on Monday said the city had taken ''great strides'' in adding car and bike sharing programs, and a municipal car pooling scheme to the city's public transportation network.
Among large cities, Milan led as the most eco-friendly thanks to its metro and tram system, which on average residents use more than once per day.
Rome followed in 62nd place, up from 70th the year before, showing slight improvement in the smog department, but still lagging behind in recycling levels and usage of public transport.
Turin came in third among large cities at 77th place overall, ahead of Naples in 89th place, where waste management has improved since trash submerged city streets in early 2008.
Legambiente said the report highlights a growing north-south divide between environmental cities, the top three of which were all in the north and the bottom three (Catania, Crotone and Agrigento) were all in the south.
The Sicilian city of Catania, which counts over 300,000 people, came in last place, recycling less than 3% of its trash and treating less than a third of its sewage water.
Commenting on the report Monday, Legambiente urban centers chief Alberto Fiorillo said Italy's mayors ''need to start governing more like ants, and less like grasshoppers'' referring to Aesop's fable about the grasshopper singing away summer while the ant hoarded stores of food.
''Cities account for most of the country's unsustainable development, and that's where authorities have most control over the means to prevent it,'' Fiorillo said.
''It's in the hands of mayors to improve public transport, regulate construction, manage energy consumption, enforce waste and water recycling, put a lid on emissions and do their part to fight climate change''.
