Long standing

The “mountain” of concrete rubble that had accumulated at the Garbage Dumping Area Number 1 in Male’ has been cleared and the area has been handed over to the Male’ City Council today.

The area was cleared through a joint effort by the Ministry of Environment and Energy, Male’ City Council and the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF). Cleared in record pace, the area was handed over to the Male’ City Council in a ceremony held in the Male’ Garbage Dumping Area Number 1 today.

Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Environment and Energy Dr. Mariyam Shakeela said that she expects Male’ City Council will manage the garbage dumping area in an acceptable manner. She asked the households to uphold their individual responsibilities when sorting and segregating the garbage before disposal.

“I would like to ask the households to carry out their individual responsibilities when taking garbage to the dumping ground. In other parts of the world, the garbage is sorted from the households themselves. I would like to ask the public to do the same,” Minister Shakeela said.

Minister for Defence and National Security Colonel (Rtd) Mohamed Nazim also spoke at the ceremony. The Defence Minister said that Male’ City Council and the government authorities had worked closely to make this project a success. He said that he was pleased to see the cooperation between the two parties and that he hopes to see such cooperation in the future. Minister Nazim thanked all parties involved in the clearing of the garbage dumping area.

Male’ City Council stated that the area will be opened to garbage disposal starting from today, but said that the it will be monitored and properly managed. They said that their aim would be to clear the garbage within 24 hours of dumping and not allow the waste to accumulate. The Council however noted that the task posed numerous difficulties, noting foremost that their transportation barge used to carry the waste to Thilafushi waste dumping island, is currently out of commission.

Maldives Transport and Contracting Company Plc (MTCC) was commissioned to clear the garbage dumping area on the 7th of March this year for an amount of MVR 21 million. Nonetheless, the company carried out the project in record time with immense assistance from Male’ City Council and MNDF.