WAMCO can, WAMCO can’t

There has been little that has gained so much collective fury than our new waste management system. But let us first start with applauding the great work done by the many men and women that walk our streets, climb our buildings and take with them our refuse. This is not a diatribe about them but a structural critique

Managing the logistics of the door to door collection of garbage in such a densely packed city, we concur, is not without its challenges. And under the circumstances, WAMCO has fared relatively well. But consistency has been severely lacking with garbage piling up on staircase landings across greater Male’ and on street corners bringing along with it serious public health concerns.

The first week of Ramadan, a peak period where consumption rates are at an all-time high, saw severe shortcomings in WAMCO’s ability to collect.

This brings about the structural critique. We argue that establishing collection points would put a lot of people out of their misery and would be far more manageable. Points can be put up in every neighborhood where residents can themselves deposit their garbage there. Yes, this will again see the proverbial Bangladeshi back on the bike over flowing with garbage bags. But this would still be a better than our current state of affairs.

Or the government can of course increase the WAMCO budget, rise up to the challenge and meet the demand effectively. We are hoping for the latter, because structural alterations would be a step backwards no matter how tempted we are given the odors that grace us on street corners and staircases.  We still believe that WAMCO can.