“Trash skips must be emptied”

"With the arrival of the heat in a filthy city with trash rotting in the streets, the potential dangers for health increase," Luigi Bartoletti, deputy president of the Rome doctors' guild, told media. "I’m not predicting a health emergency in Rome,” Bartoletti added, “but the overpowering stench around the skips is an indication of bacterial contamination.

"City hall must make choices and propose solutions, because these skips must be emptied. Rome's problem is where to empty them."

Dr Roberto Volpe from the National Research Council CNR told RAI’s TG2 that the real problems start when the trash is disturbed by animals like dogs, cats, rats or seagulls, which spread infection through their faeces or urine.

“When we take out and discard the trash,” Volpe warned, “there’s a risk of taking the contamination back home with us. So it’s important to wash our hands properly afterwards.”

Lazio regional council has convened a meeting with Rome mayor Virginia Raggi and the management of municipal trash-collection service AMA to discuss the emergency.