Digital platform introduced to monitor waste collection

The state-owned Waste Management Corporation introduced on Tuesday a digital platform to automate and streamline its waste collection process in the capital’s suburb Vilimalé.

The digital platform allows monitoring of waste collection with daily real-time updates, WAMCO explained.

“WAMCO’s Veshifaara [environment watchdog] will record all this information along with reasons why waste was not collected from some households.”

The platform will be introduced on Wednesday in Hulhumalé and preparations are underway to start using it to monitor operations in the three cities of Malé, Addu and Fuvahmulah, the company said.

Last month, an agreement was signed between WAMCO, police and the environment ministry to take action against littering and stamp out unlicensed waste collectors.

In a renewed effort to tackle a long-standing waste problem, WAMCO began waste collection services in the capital in August last year and expanded to cover its suburbs as well as the 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.