City Councilor Can’t Say When Garbage Will be Collected  

We begin tonight’s newscast with an update on the garbage collection issue plaguing Belize City. For the past two weeks, some streets have been overflowing with unsightly, smelly trash that hasn’t been picked up. Residents in the Freedom Street area of Port Loyola told us on Monday that they haven’t seen the garbage truck in two weeks. The problem is that the Belize City Council is short on cash and hasn’t been able to pay Belize Waste Control for the past three weeks. The bill is reportedly over eight hundred thousand dollars. But when will this problem be fixed? We asked City Councilor Kaya Cattouse, who is responsible for Sanitation and Maintenance. She said that CitCo is working with Belize Waste Control to resolve the issue, but she couldn’t say when residents can expect their garbage to be collected.

 

Kaya Cattouse, Belize City Councilor, Garbage Maintenance

“The company responsible has not been picking up the garbage for whatever reasons and as a result of this The residents of Belize City have been left with garbage on the streets and it has been looking bad, feeling bad. Nobody wants to see garbage everywhere.”

 

Marion Ali

“I understand the reason is because the Council has been unable to meet the garbage fee, the collection fee. Has the Council sat down with these people to try to work out something? Has the Central Government even intervened? That’s what the Deputy Prime Minister, Cordell Hyde said, there might be some need for an intervention by Central Government. Has all of that taken place?”

 

Kaya Cattouse

“The garbage situation has been ongoing even before Council – David Fonseca’s administration, Zenaida Moya’s administration, Darrell Bradley’s administration, and now Bernard Wagner’s administration. And if we can see that all these mayors, all these heads have had an issue with garbage situation and for whatever reason, cannot come to some kind of proper arrangement to get it resolved, then we have to look deeper into it because that is telling you that there is more to whatever contract there is.”

 

Marion Ali

“Has the Council received a lawsuit from the company because of nonpayment?”

 

Kaya Cattouse

“I am not able to comment on that.”

 

Marion Ali

“Well, as the Councilor responsible though, can you say when we can expect that the streets will be cleaned, the garbage won’t be out there lying around for days on end?”

 

Kaya Cattouse

“So we have been trying our best to, clean the areas that we can. However, it is not within the scope of the contract for the City Council trucks to actually pick up residential garbage. So, it’s not something that we can just  take our trucks and go out there and pick up the garbage. Because then, that will cause another problem. So we are trying to work as best as we can with the company and see how best we can rectify the situation as soon as possible.”

 

Marion Ali

“Have they given any assurances?”

 

Kaya Cattouse

“Not able to comment on that.”