The streets of La Paz, seat of the Government and Legislature of Bolivia, remain full of garbage, despite an agreement reached yesterday between the Mayor’s Office and two companies responsible for urban cleaning, amidst a conflict over economic adjustments in the service, which has been suspended for more than two weeks.
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The main street intersections and areas around waste containers are full of garbage bags forming small mountains in different parts of the city, as verified by EFE this Wednesday.
In commercial areas, especially near popular markets, solid and liquid waste remains scattered on sidewalks and streets, leading to complaints from residents and merchants about the bad smell and health hazard.
“We’ve been like this for 15 days amidst the garbage; the mayor (César Dockweiler) should already provide a solution. The board of directors has deigned to pick up the trash, but the smell is still terrible,” pork vendor Lorena Choque, from El Tejar market, one of the most popular areas in La Paz, told EFE.
Choque regretted that the accumulation of garbage “affects the health of citizens who have to continue working.”
The Municipal Government of La Paz maintains a service concession contract with the companies Trébol and La Paz Limpia for urban cleaning, which includes garbage collection, sweeping, cleaning of roads and public spaces, as well as the transport of solid waste in La Paz, according to official information from the Mayor’s Office.
The conflict arose in mid-August when the companies demanded contract adjustments from the Mayor’s Office due to the increase in fuel prices and operating costs, and also demanded the disbursement of owed money to cover workers’ salaries, among the most relevant points.
Yesterday, the mayor and representatives of the two companies signed an agreement that includes making modifications to the contracts, taking into account the rising cost of fuels and “the optimization of garbage collection,” according to Dockweiler.
The mayor regretted this Wednesday that after reaching an agreement, “there is no justification for the city to be like this,” referring to the garbage still in the streets.
“They have committed to cleaning and should have worked by time and material,” Dockweiler said, quoted in a press release from the La Paz Mayor’s Office.
“I am going to enforce the contract, because one of my responsibilities is precisely public health; we have to take care of people’s lives,” he added.
For its part, the company La Paz Limpia announced that “a contingency plan is being worked on for the systematic collection of accumulated waste, prioritizing the most critical points,” a job that will require “at least four days.”
“We ask the population for patience while we execute our plan for the full normalization of the service,” the statement indicates.
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