The regional authorities have thought on Saturday, to have discovered the temporary means to delay the deadline and to rid the city of the piles of garbage which gathered over six days.
It was decided yesterday to briefly reopen the Agareb landfill by digging a new trench there, which could hold the garbage for a few weeks. That same evening, all the operators in the municipalities were involved and all the dump trucks started to collect the rubbish to take them to the Agareb landfill, which reopened for the occasion. Nevertheless, it only took a handful of young people from Agareb, who intervened to stop the trucks from reaching the landfill.
These young people were resolved not to let the trucks loaded with garbage pass, in the face of total indifference from the authorities and the police. Confronted with the impotence of the State, the absence of a governor, and the inability of the central authorities, in particular, the waste management agency, which committed the imprudence of deciding the closure of the Agareb landfill without being sure of the alternative, and which shifted its decision, provoking the fury of local residents.
Suddenly, the Sfaxiens found themselves doomed to collapse even more under garbage because of the lack of authority. This shows if need be the bankruptcy of the system of local and regional governance advocated by the political class after 2011. The only thing these authorities were able of was to return to good old medieval methods, to sprinkle quicklime garbage heaps, or to burn them when possible, in the hope of decreasing the risk of infection to some extent!
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