City of genk supports Fcc in war against waste
Pini Bothoko | Monday June 2, 2014 17:49
The Belgian city has a twinning arrangement with Francistown where Dries addressed the media during the unveiling of three refuse trucks on Friday that the Francistown City Council (FCC) bought for P1.4 million each.
The self-loading refuse trucks have a carrying capacity of 20 tonnes each and have been hailed as the right weapons in the fight against waste in the city.
Dries told the gathering that they have been working with FCC for some time and one of the things they have assisted each other with was coming up with ways of waste management control.
Addressing his Francistown counterpart Dries said: ”I know you as an ambitious man and know you will win this battle of waste management in this city.
“We have been touring the landfill and have seen opportunities for the future in how to make use of waste at the landfill. Therefore we promise to share ideas with you so as to help you come up with ways of managing waste at the landfill.” Dries said that litter at the landfill can be recycled to make new useful materials and they will help FCC in coming up with brilliant ideas on how to do it and improve the economy of the city.
“New ways can be introduced to make use of waste and create jobs for citizens as well as boost the economy of this country. What you have done here today is a step forward in managing waste and ultimately you will win,” he said.
He said FCC has taken the right step in developing its city by prioritising the issue of waste management, which is an important and good idea because it also caters for the health of city dwellers.
“I just heard that you have Vision 2022 ahead and by keeping the city clean, you will be able to attract investors. We will continue to provide our support for you to achieve this vision, as you have also given us ideas in the past when visiting our city,” said Dries.
Performing the unveiling of the trucks, Kgalajwe applauded the city of Genk for their commitment in helping them come up with ideas for waste control.
He said that through the purchase of trucks they have achieved what they have been looking forward to in fighting waste in the city. He said that last year they came up with waste management strategies due to challenges they had with waste in the city.
Kgalajwe said that they used to have 14 trucks, but ended up having to rely on only four as the others had become scraps. He added that the trucks had a 10-year warranty and they had become costly to repair.
“With the expansion of the city, increase in government institutions, there is a need for additional resources. We experienced a lot of illegal litter dumping, especially from contractors and hope that we are winning this battle,” he said.
He said that another issue of a concern was waste caused by the informal traders at the bus rank and at Central District Business, adding that the city is getting tidier and tidier.
“We will make sure to collect and dispose waste as per our weekly standard. We will very soon conduct waste management education campaign with members of the public and in August we will host a clean up campaign.
“This is all part of Vision 2022,” he said.
Kgalajwe said that they deducted P4.4million from the P7 million they had budgeted for litter picking to purchase the three trucks and that the remaining P3 million will be used to outsource collection and disposal of waste to private contractors.