Garbage dumping restricted to evening hours in Sittwe

By DMG 13 Jun 2022

DMG Newsroom
13 June 2022, Sittwe 

The Sittwe Township municipality has instructed residents to dump their garbage only between the hours of 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. 

As of June 10, use of the municipal dumping grounds is restricted to household waste, with commercial waste to be dumped at the Hmansi dumping grounds. The municipality has also erected signboards warning residents of the Arakan State capital not to dump during the daytime. 

A municipality officer said the move is intended to systematise garbage collection and keep the city’s dumping grounds orderly. 

“The dumping grounds are a mess when people dump throughout the day,” he said. 

Sittwe resident U Soe Naing welcomed the move, suggesting that legal action should be taken against violators.  

“If a system is to be introduced, it must be enforced systematically. Erecting signboards is not enough. There is also a need to regulate the people,” he said. 

The Arakan State Administration Council has previously told DMG that it will privatise garbage collection in 10 of Sittwe’s urban wards. If implemented as planned, interested companies will be invited and selected via a tender. 

It will be difficult for low-income families to pay for garbage collection if it is privatised, said Sittwe resident U Moe Kyaw. 

“If garbage collection is to be privatised, the garbage trucks must collect garbage at a fixed time. If not, people will still dump at the dumping grounds. And the service fee must be reasonable as all the people are having a difficult time these days,” he said. 

In December, a municipal officer told DMG that the municipality was operating with a fleet of 15 garbage trucks. 

DMG was unable to obtain comment from the Sittwe Township municipality about its daily operations collecting municipal waste.