The lack of garbage collection in the municipality of Panama is a constant that covers all the districts of this commune, especially San Francisco, in the heart of the city.
Faced with this reality, the representative of this corregimiento, Carlos Pérez Herrera, said he agreed with this service being transferred to the hands of the mayor’s office.
“This is a problem not only in San Francisco, but in all of Panama City, and yes, it is a real problem because it is evident that garbage collection has decreased,” said the representative, stressing that the authorities understand that the Authority of Urban and Home Cleaning faces problems with equipment, such as trucks that are damaged and that are waiting for new trucks; however, that cannot be taken as an excuse.
“I do share the mayor’s opinion, I think there are already people with experience in this matter and I think it can pass into the hands of the municipality, it would be better if we could work as a team, but not only with the team, but also with the budget” , he mentioned.
I emphasize that there are hundreds of tons of garbage that are generated in the district daily, where not only people reside, but there are many businesses, which causes the amount of waste to increase.
Faced with this situation, Pérez Herrera asked the Cleansing Authority to meet with the representatives of townships and with Mayor José Luis Fábrega, so that they find a common solution.
He said that as a palliative in the district of San Francisco, the Community Board managed to rent several dump trucks for a few days to be able to collect garbage in places that had not collected garbage for a month; but he explained that this is not profitable since they do not have enough budget to deal with this situation.
“We also have a budget limit to rent the equipment, if it is difficult for the Community Board to work in this way and we want to support the Cleansing Authority, that is why it has to hold a meeting with the representatives and the mayor,” he said.
The representative mentioned that it is necessary for the Executive to be present at that meeting to prevent the lack of waste collection from becoming a national emergency. He specified that they have received complaints of the proliferation of rats due to the lack of collection.
“It is a reality that cannot be hidden by hand and we need the support of the national government authorities,” he said.
