The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) is reporting that
there have been improvements in the collection of household garbage over the last
several months.
Chairman of the NSWMA, Michael A. Joseph, said his team has put in place
several measures to improve the frequency by which the garbage is collected
weekly.
He acknowledged that there are challenges that pop up from time to time and the
authority is working diligently to have these resolved as soon as possible.
“Currently, we have ten contractors with whom we have outsourced the garbage
collection. In addition, we have four trucks of our own, also engaged in the
exercise. What happens is that several of these contracts have been experiencing
issues with their trucks that have led to breakdowns, causing a negative ‘domino
effect’ in the collection process,” he revealed.
To resolve this ongoing problem, Joseph disclosed that the authority plans to add
to its fleet of garbage trucks. “We are in discussion to acquire two additional
trucks, which we hope will arrive by yearend. We have also asked the contractors
to take measures to reduce the breakdowns by acquiring more reliable trucks
themselves,” he noted.
According to Joseph, there are approximately twenty trucks in the system
collecting garbage from households, daily. He said the authority wants to have a
total of twenty-four trucks so that some of the trucks can be on standby to go into
service, should a problem develop in any particular area.
The NSWMA chairman said, with the addition of the two new trucks and a plan to
acquire two more at a later date, he believes that the authority will be in a position
to have an efficient collection service by the turn of the new year.
On the issue of outstanding payments, Joseph said these are also being addressed.
He explained that coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authority’s revenue
stream was severely impacted by the suspension of both cruise ship calls and
flights at the airport. He said whilst revenues dropped for the authority, it still had
to make payments to contractors causing a backlog in payments to develop.
He gave the assurance that the authority is committed to clearing up these
outstanding payments.
