10 Nov 2013

The cause of sanitation problems that Francistown City Council is facing is the insufficient refuse compactors in the council which experienced frequent breakdowns, Parliament has been informed.

Responding to a Parliamentary question, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Peter Siele said he was aware of the problem and that it has resulted in a backlog of collection of waste in the city. He said out of a total of 10 compactors, on average, only three were operational, hence not all areas of the city were serviced as per the laid down service standard of twice weekly.

“As a short term measure, the council has sourced funding to procure three new refuse compactors during this financial year.   The medium term measure includes scaling up outsourcing of refuse collection in some areas around the city to reduce the current coverage by the council refuse compactors,” said the minister.

Minister Siele stated that waste collection in Central Business District (CBD), Minestone and bus and taxi rank were completely outsourced in August this year. The outsourced activities include street cleaning, litter picking and bin collection while in the rest of the city, council crews do waste collection.

Member of Parliament for Francistown West, Mr Wynter Mmolotsi had asked whether the minister was aware of the sanitation problem brought about by non-collection of rubbish in the whole of Francistown.

He had also asked what caused the problem and what short to medium term measures were in place to ameliorate the situation. Ends