Council, WAMCO resolve waste management dispute; to cooperate
State environment minister Ali Solih told Atoll Times that Wednesday’s meeting was very successful.
By
Ahmed Naif
Male City Council and the Waste management Corporation (WAMCO) have agreed to work together to clean up public places in Male and collect garbage, after having faced off on some disagreements.
When the City Council’s agreement with WAMCO to clean public places in the city expired, the council started collecting garbage on its own without renewing the agreement. With that:
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WAMCO had stopped collecting garbage dumped on the streets from houses in the city
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The city council however, said households pay WAMCO to remove the waste and that it was not the council’s job
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The prolonged conflict over who will collect what waste led to a lot of garbage piling on the streets of the city
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While the council took away one part of the garbage, the other half was later collected by WAMCO
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The two sides exchanged heated words and the matter escalated
The environment ministry took the initiative to resolve the issue on Wednesday and held a meeting with the city council, WAMCO and the Local Government Authority (LGA). Deputy Mayor of Male Ahmed Nareesh, senior officials of WAMCO and LGA CEO Afshan Latheef were also present on behalf of the council.
State environment minister Ali Solih told Atoll Times that Wednesday’s meeting was very successful. Speaking on the occasion, Solih said that it was the minister's vision to clean up the city and manage the waste properly. They discussed in detail how to resolve these issues and work together, he said.
"Two-thirds of the people [WAMCO and the city council] resolved their differences and came up with negotiated solutions on what could be done to work together. The meeting was positive. The next step is to implement them," Ali Solih said.
Speaking about the meeting, Deputy Mayor Nareesh told Atoll Times that the meeting focused on the issue of garbage piling up on the city's roads as many households in the city are still dumping waste without registering themselves with WAMCO. Therefore, the civic body will assure them of cooperation in resolving the issue, he said. According to Naresh, the city council has proposed to make it mandatory to register with WAMCO while conducting house registration.
"Overall, the two sides held joint talks to keep public places clean in the city. We said the civic body was ready to cooperate. So, both sides changed their views on possibilities. What will be done will be finalised after another meeting," Nareesh said.
