Trash piles up in Sulaimani, municipality can only clean 30 percent
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Sulaimani municipality teams are only able to collect 30 percent of trash on the city’s streets, an official from the municipality office told Rudaw on Thursday as cleaning companies continue their strike.
“We are using ten trash trucks along with 60 workers to clean the bazaar and the main streets of the city, however what we are cleaning is only around 30 percent of the city’s trash,” head of the municipality’s services department Nzar Kamal told Rudaw.
He added that their teams were previously only responsible for cleaning the outskirts of the city, but after the companies stopped working, they had to relocate their teams into the city.
Cleaning companies in Sulaimani went on strike earlier this week, claiming that the government had not provided them with financial assistance since September.
The companies previously received monthly financial assistance from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), but in the spring of last year the KRG implemented austerity measures on the financial assistance in aims to reduce government spending as they were facing a financial crisis due to disagreements with Baghdad over the region’s share of the federal budget.
The companies now claim that the government stopped providing any assistance in September. Cleaning companies in smaller cities and towns of the province went on strike last month.
Mounds of garbage covered the streets of the city last year around the same time after the employees of private companies the government employs to collect trash went on strike.
Three companies - Shkar, Harem and Khalid Shinki - have been hired to collect trash and clean Sulaimani, each responsible for a different portion of the city.
The Shkar Company alone, which has 350 workers, used to collect up to 200 tons of trash daily, according to its provincial director.
According to data obtained by Rudaw from the companies, 1,200 tons of trash is thrown away on a daily basis in Sulaimani alone.
“We are using ten trash trucks along with 60 workers to clean the bazaar and the main streets of the city, however what we are cleaning is only around 30 percent of the city’s trash,” head of the municipality’s services department Nzar Kamal told Rudaw.
He added that their teams were previously only responsible for cleaning the outskirts of the city, but after the companies stopped working, they had to relocate their teams into the city.
Cleaning companies in Sulaimani went on strike earlier this week, claiming that the government had not provided them with financial assistance since September.
The companies previously received monthly financial assistance from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), but in the spring of last year the KRG implemented austerity measures on the financial assistance in aims to reduce government spending as they were facing a financial crisis due to disagreements with Baghdad over the region’s share of the federal budget.
The companies now claim that the government stopped providing any assistance in September. Cleaning companies in smaller cities and towns of the province went on strike last month.
Mounds of garbage covered the streets of the city last year around the same time after the employees of private companies the government employs to collect trash went on strike.
Three companies - Shkar, Harem and Khalid Shinki - have been hired to collect trash and clean Sulaimani, each responsible for a different portion of the city.
The Shkar Company alone, which has 350 workers, used to collect up to 200 tons of trash daily, according to its provincial director.
According to data obtained by Rudaw from the companies, 1,200 tons of trash is thrown away on a daily basis in Sulaimani alone.