Management of the garbage in Bogotá

 - Management of the Garbage in Bogotá

Trash lined even the carrera septima, one of Bogotá’s most important streets, on Tuesday 18th, 2012 in the morning. With many residents complaining, the situation is a public relations crisis for Petro.

 

On December 18^th Lime, Atesa, Ciudad Limpia and Aseo Capital will hand over the reins on garbage collection in Bogotá to La Empresa de Acueducto y Alcantarillado de Bogotá´s (EAAB) (The Water Company).

But for a city that produces 7,700 daily tons of waste this de-privatization is uncertain and inconvenient, the plan of action is unclear just days away from its scheduled implementation.

Diego Bravo of the EAAB argued on Caracol Radio that, “citizens won´t feel the change that will take place two weeks from now”, insisting that “everything that has to be done, has been done in order to meet the duty of providing this public service”.

His words offer precious little comfort however; it is still uncertain who will be servicing the six sectors of the city during the transition period. The four companies, whose contracts end on December 17^th, plan on continuing their pick-up routes after this date while Mayor Gustavo Petro insists this will be prohibited.

As well as “nationalizing” the garbage collection, Petro´s plan proposes 44 new recycling co-ops pushing the total number of these organizations up to 60. However, this has created unrest within the Unidad Administrativa Especial de Servicios Público (UASP), the entity representing the 14,000 recyclers that collect approximately 1,200 tons of garbage on a daily basis. UASP has organized demonstrations to show its disaccord.

And, worse still, though Petro has asked that the private companies return their garbage trucks, the mayoralty is currently holding a beauty contest for new providers of these vehicles. Daewoo and Mercedes Benz are competing for a contract worth $80,000 million pesos. But if the private companies do not hand over their trucks, the District government will have to wait six months for the new dustcarts to come on stream.

The shortage of recycling co-ops, trash vehicles, and lack of an established system do not bode well for the smooth transition Diego Bravo promised.

Meetings between the mayor, Diego Bravo, and UASP continue taking place in order to establish an efficient system. In two weeks´ time, Bogotá will fully establish not only whether the de-privatization of the garbage collection is as efficient and effective as predicted but also what consequences will arise if the private companies do not comply with the new regulations.