Male’ City Council has decided to issue fines for dumping waste onto the streets. The new rule will be implemented on January 20.
Male’ City Council took over street cleaning in the capital city after the expiration of the contract with Waste Management Corporation (WAMCO) in December. The council previously addressed the issue of residents accumulating waste on the streets by giving warnings to offenders. It has now decided to begin monitoring and identifying the residents who have been dumping waste in order to issue fines. Residents will receive a warning for a first-time offence, a USD13 fine the second time, and a USD33 fine from then on.
Male’ City Council stated that it will be monitoring the streets with assistance from the police constabulary as part of the Male’ City Community Monitoring and Security Service. The council stated that the offenders will only be able to receive services from the council after they pay the fine.
Waste accumulating on the streets has become a common problem in Male’ , despite authorities’ attempts to solve the issue for the past five months. Disagreements between WAMCO and Male’ City Council had also led to the failure to adequately clean the streets, which led to the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, and Technology and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) urging the relevant authority to take up the responsibility in order to prevent the spread of disease.