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AROUND 2,200 tonnes of waste are picked up from areas across the country everyday and dumped by trucks at Askar landfill, it has been revealed.
Household rubbish makes up 72 per cent of the overall waste while construction materials account for 8pc.
According to the latest statistics released by the Municipalities Affairs and Agriculture Ministry, every Bahrain resident dumps 1.1kg of litter on an average every day.
“More than 3,000 employees from two cleaning companies, including drivers, inspectors and officials, take to work as early as 4am to keep the country litter-free,” the ministry said, while highlighting its efforts, in a statement yesterday.
Around 260 vehicles including small and large garbage compactor trucks and special cranes are deployed by Urbaser and Gulf Cleaning Company to assist in the operations which include washing streets, pavements and sidewalks, it added.
Municipalities supervise the action plan, monitor violations and send requests to the companies and hold them accountable for faults, if any.
“Special programmes have been adopted to monitor companies’ performance in terms of quantity and quality of work, in addition to dealing with complaints and proposals,” the statement said.
“Automated systems also allow monitoring of all vehicles via GPS to follow up on their workload and working hours, and assess their performance.
“Municipal inspectors co-ordinate with their counterparts working with the companies to ensure the implementation of cleaning campaigns in residential and commercial neighbourhoods, coasts, and open and agricultural areas. The teams also supervise the removal of violations such as abandoned cars and vehicles displayed for sale on the sidewalks.”
The ministry said it has set up a special team for emergency work to respond rapidly in cases of unstable weather, especially sandstorms, to remove accumulated dust, fallen trees from the streets and clean buildings.
“The Estidama Centre, set up in 2017 as one of the initiatives of the National Waste Management Strategy in Bahrain, aims to achieve Bahrain’s commitments in the field of waste management and environmental sustainability,” it added. It was established in partnership with the two cleaning companies to implement the government’s waste management strategy using the best methods.
The United Nations Environment Programme’s Food Waste Index had revealed that people in Bahrain threw away 146,000 tonnes of food in 2020, costing Bahrain BD94.9 million. Around 230,000 tonnes of food waste made its way into the country’s landfills in 2021, which according to officials, would cost the country BD140m.
The GDN earlier reported that the government was studying 180 initiatives including a new landfill and a hi-tech waste-to-energy complex as part of a futuristic plan to tackle waste. Bahrain has already initiated 29 ‘rapid action’ plans, 90 short-term projects, 27 medium-term policies and 34 long-term strategies to manage waste.
Former Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning minister Essam Khalaf had said that each phase would result in lesser waste being dumped in the Hafeera landfill – which now stretches to 2.83km.
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