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Marseille: It smells like perfumed
Via Best Of The Web on WSJMARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - City cleaners are spraying streets in the French port of Marseille with lemon grass perfume to get rid of the stench from piles of rubbish that have been festering under a hot sun for two weeks. Refuse collectors returned to work Tuesday after a 14-day strike over pension reforms and city cleaners were battling to clear up an estimated 8,000 tonnes of garbage whose stench has attracted rats in droves. "It's been awful. The smell has been unbearable and the streets were disgusting with rotting rubbish strewn all over them. Life hasn't been very easy," said a spokeswoman at the municipal services department of Marseille Town Hall. "We occasionally add a bit of lemongrass to disinfecting products when cleaning up after an outdoor market, but this time we're adding it in much bigger doses and using it everywhere." "It's a gentle, hygienic smell and it doesn't cause problems for asthmatics in hot weather like some products," she added. Residents of Marseille, swelteringly hot this month, grew so furious at the inescapable pong that they set rubbish heaps ablaze, keeping firemen working round the clock. France has been hit by a wave of public sector strikes this month over the center-right government's plans to make people work longer before they can claim a state pension. Welcome to Chiracville Posted by: Frank G 2003-06-17 |
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