Trash is Back After Executive Row

Now that the Mayor’s office is back on trash duty, garbage overflow into Panama City streets is an issue again.

Facing a health crisis back in April, the central government took over the responsibility of collecting the city’s garbage. Since then, the streets have been relatively clean.  Yesterday, angered by the mayor’s office, the government withdrew its support including the 50 compactor trucks and 16 backhoes it had contracted for a three-month period.

“The Waste Commission proposed a bid for waste collection as is done in virtually all Latin American capitals,” said Minister to the Presidency Jimmy Papadimitriu.  ”But if the Mayor wants to be in charge of collecting garbage, he should do so and stop making excuses.”

This leaves 36 trucks and hundreds of tons of uncollected garbage on the streets.

“A crisis is approaching if a decision is not made in the coming hours to do something about the lack of equipment,” said Harmodio Montaner, head of DIMAUD, Panama’s municipal urban and residential waste management department.

He asked the public to be patient and refrain from taking out the trash for 24 hours.