Marseille: an “oil slick” of waste after torrential rains
On the abandoned beach, shells and large garbage… Tuesday morning, Noëlle, 53, was rollerblading along the sea when she saw the disaster: shapeless packages of rubbish tossed by the waves or vomited on the sand. After the torrential rains that poured down on Marseille on Monday, the announced disaster occurred: the garbage which had not been collected for ten days following a strike by garbage collectors, was carried downstream, cape on the Mediterranean.
Although the sun had returned, it was not a question for Noelle to swim, as she does all year round, but to put on green gloves and to pick up, over and over again “three big bags full of cans, bottles, anti-Covid masks, dead rats and a whole bunch of dirt, ”she laments, one hand on the reins to relieve her painful back.
About twenty other garbage bags, lined up on Prado beach, testify to the speed with which a handful of residents spontaneously tried to scoop the massive arrival of rubbish on “Épluchures beach”, the nickname that local surfers have given a lease to this beach in the Prado district. Nearby, the Huveaune flows into it. By overflowing the day before, this coastal river carried in its course up to five thousand tons of refuse. Social networks in turn carried these sordid images, blasting a little more the reputation of the 2nd largest city in France, regularly singled out for its dirtiness, and donkey hat in terms of selective sorting (15 kg per inhabitant per year against 70 on average).
“Fortunately, we sent an awareness here”
Tuesday, the town hall of Marseille (socialist and) stepped up to accuse the metropolis of Aix-Marseille, led by LR Martine Vassal, of not having anticipated anything, while the storm was announced by Météo France. Since coming to power in the summer of 2020, she has been calling for the return of this jurisdiction to the municipal fold. A political standoff that pulls a disillusioned pout from environmental defenders.
VIDEO. Floods in Marseille: rivers of waste in the streets … and to the sea
“We are lucky to be in one of the most beautiful harbors in the world, between sea and creeks, and here is the result, repulsive with ugliness”, annoys Georges Édouard, founder of “1 Déchet Per Jour”, one of the many Marseille associations that fight against this endemic scourge. “Fortunately, we sent an awareness here two or three years ago. The Covid also played a role, by reconnecting people to the fragile beauty of nature, ”he wants to believe.
A race against time
If again the disaster was only visual… “It’s an ecological disaster, insists Isabelle Poitou, who has struggled for more than twenty years at the head of the Mer-Terre association. It begins with a strike by garbage collectors and, at the end, it is the dolphins who clink glasses ”, summarizes the biologist. “Everyone now knows the irreparable damage this causes to ecosystems. Swinging your butt or your plastic bag on the ground is no longer negligence, it is participation in a conscious crime against the environment, ”she enraged, between anger and fatigue.
Several associations have scheduled cleaning operations as of Wednesday, which mobilize dozens of volunteers. They are planning others this weekend, after the announced three days of the mistral. The wind should bring some of the rubbish back to shore, they hope. A race against time: “Anything that remains at sea will be swallowed up, then ingested by the fish. The strike and the floods did not help anything, but this disaster is all the time, ”insists Céline Albinet, co-director of the Clean My Calanques association. “On a daily basis, adds Isabelle Poitou, it’s worse than an oil spill. “