Daytime garbage collection shift added after complaints

The state waste management company has added a daytime collection shift after complaints of garbage piling up on the streets of Malé.

Apologising for “inconveniences faced by customers”, WAMCO said Friday that new collection hours from 8 pm to 12 am, set after a survey of customer preference during Ramadan, were too short to serve all households in the capital.

An afternoon shift from 2 pm to 5 pm has been added for Malé and its suburbs Hulhumalé and Vilimalé.

With WAMCO unable to collect from many homes on the first day of Ramadan, stacks of garbage bags were left on street corners and pavements across the city Thursday.

WAMCO began waste collection services in the capital in August last year in a renewed effort to tackle a long-standing waste problem. It later expanded to cover the suburbs and two southernmost atolls.

Expatriate workers stopped collecting garbage after many years when a ban on carrying garbage bags on bicycles came into force on August 1.

WAMCO’s complaints and information hotline is 1666.

Photo from Twitter