Rough start for new garbage regime
Following months of delays, Cairo's ambitious new waste management project has finally begun -- but not without even more problems. Dena Rashed reports
Last month, Cairo's western district became the first of the capital's four regions to be cleaned up by private foreign garbage collection companies. Nearly every stage of the project -- from initial discussions between the governorate and the foreign companies almost two years ago to post contract pre- implementation -- has featured delays of some sort.
Most recently, the problems centered on how much the two Italian and two Spanish companies would have to pay in customs duties on the equipment they brought in from abroad to do the job. Customs authorities wanted to charge between 30-40 per cent of the cost of the equipment, even though investment Law No 8, as well as the contracts the companies signed with the governorate, allow free entry for the equipment.
According to Lisardo Gonzalez, the managing director of Spanish company Enser -- the first to actually begin collecting garbage -- the problems with customs ended up delaying their work for months. "It took three months to release our equipment and we ended up paying only five per cent." Enser's 15-year contract with the governorate is worth LE55 million per annum, subject to a three per cent increase per year.
Now that the garbage is actually being collected, at least in parts of western Cairo, the real test of the service has begun. For some residents of low-income neighbourhoods Bab Al- Sha'riya and Al-Wayli, the service has thus far left a lot to be desired.
According to Shaarawi Sandioni, a butcher from Darb Al-Hekma, a Bab Al-Sha'riya alleyway, what started as a rather active effort has quickly tapered off. "It has been four days now since they collected the garbage," Sandioni said. Because the company did not provide containers for the buildings, he said, people have begun placing their garbage in front of their buildings, and "some people have even started to burn their garbage so it doesn't pile up."
Said El-Koshi, who owns a shop in the same alley, also praised the first few days of work, when the "company would come round and clean up two and three times per day". However, El-Koshi said, "they have not been around for four days and we cannot afford that." He said people had begun cleaning up the areas in front of their shops on their own.
Other residents -- who preferred to remain anonymous -- complained that the company did not provide the door-to-door service they had promised. "The zabbal (garbage man) used to come to our door, but they have not done that, and I cannot tolerate it," said one resident. Another, labourer Mohamed El-Kawasa, said he had actually filed several complaints to the company's supervisors, "but they had still not shown up to collect our garbage."
Another resident, Aisha Mohamed, said the company had provided her with garbage bags but had not shown up to collect the garbage. "I am not going to pay for this service unless they do what they promised and collect the garbage door-to-door," she said.
In fact, the monthly fee residents are expected to pay for the garbage collection is included in their normal electricity bill. The system is similar to the one being applied in Alexandria (where foreign companies have also been contracted to take care of the garbage) whereby -- based on an elaborate index determined by the type of property -- a certain percentage of each electricity bill is added on as a garbage collection fee. As the consumption of electricity increases, so does the garbage collection fee. Cairo Governor Abdel-Rehim Shehata has repeatedly said that middle-income districts will pay between LE2-4 per month.
Electricity Ministry officials, meanwhile, have generally been unclear regarding whether or not people's power will be cut off if the garbage collection fee is not paid.
Saad Ahmed, a grocery owner from the same district, thinks the fee is unfair. "It is unreasonable to link electricity to the garbage collection fee," he said. In any case, Ahmed said, he would not be paying this month, "since our alley has not been cleaned."
Farouk Wahid, another resident, charged that only the main streets were being cleaned at the expense of the smaller alleys.
Gonzalez -- Enser's managing director -- acknowledged that there have been snags in the service thus far, but explained that "the first phase is the most difficult and complicated one." He figured that the evaluation of the problems should take "no more than the next two or three months", partly because "the workers are new, the machines they have been trained on are new, and, at the same time, there have not been enough workers. Even though this kind of work is fine everywhere else, it seems to be embarrassing for some people here, and so we have had to look for labour in other governorates." Gonzalez said the most difficult part of the process has been trying to establish a system. At the same time, he is "optimistic that we will work out the problems".
Meanwhile, the additional complications related to the role -- if any -- to be played by the nearly 50,000- strong zabbaleen, or garbage collectors community already in place in Cairo also seem to be coming to a head. For the past few months, intense discussions have been going on between the foreign companies, the governorate, Cairo's Cleanliness and Beautification Authority, and the zabbaleen, in an effort to fit them into the new scheme. Some zabbaleen demonstrated in Ard Al-Lewa in March, while others have been busy organising and attending meetings and discussions to ensure their inclusion in the new deals.
Is'haq Boulos, the head spokesperson for Cairo's Garbage Collectors Association, said the group was "about to reach a deal with the companies whereby we will work with them to collect the garbage in return for an 85 piastre per month per apartment flat fee." For the zabbaleen however, the real catch was not necessarily the money, but the income that resulted from recycling the garbage itself. "Cairo Governor Abdel-Rehim Shehata promised us 50 feddans in Qattamiya to use for that purpose," said Boulos, "and we are close to reaching a solution with the governorate on that matter as well."
According to Gonzalez, even though the contracts the companies signed with the governorate do not oblige them to deal with the zabbaleen, "we want to collaborate with them."
Sources said that two of the other companies involved in the scheme -- one Italian, one Spanish -- had also managed to resolve their issues with the customs authorities, and, in the case of Spanish company FCC, had begun working in the city's eastern district. The other Italian company, AMA, which is in charge of cleaning the northern district, is still awaiting a cabinet conflict resolution committee's decision regarding its customs problem. The company has more equipment than the others, and the customs issues have delayed their work for four months thus far.
