City Council Takes on Garbage Collection Post-flood

A massive, citywide cleanup spearheaded by the National Emergency Management Organization, NEMO, and the Belize City Council is underway.  The campaign continues one week after torrential rains flooded parts of the Old Capital.  This afternoon, Councilor Phillip Willoughby met with the media where he issued a notice for residents needing to dispose of debris that accumulated after the flood.  According to Willoughby, the Belize City Council, over the next three days, will assume the responsibility of collecting the garbage.

Phillip Willoughby

Phillip Willoughby, CEMO

“From the October sixteenth rains and floods that the Belize City area proper experienced, the environmental committee, as a part of NEMO did a report name the Belize City 2015 Flooding Report. The agencies that forms or makes up this committee are PASA, the agency or the organization responsible for the management of the transfer station and the landfill at mile twenty-six; Department of Environment; Solid Waste Management Authority, which is a part of the Ministry of Natural Resources, which is chaired by C.E.O. Catzim. As a result of flooding, the committee advised that the necessary steps be taken. One, all waste debris—sanitized waste or clean waste—excluding sledge material that is dug from the drains, will be picked up by the Belize City Council. All the sledge material will be picked up by PASA and finally an advisory from the Department of Environment requesting that no sledge or waste material be used at this time by the residents of Belize City as landfill or any sort of fill because of the impending danger of sickness that may arise from the utilization of these waste material.”