(Panama-Guide) - La Estrella - Although the new Urban and Household Cleanliness Authority (AAUD) has not even officially started operating, there are those who already have their eyes on the management of the entity. Many expect them to fix the problems with garbage collection, which in recent months have worsened due to a lack of resources. City residents hope the new entity which was created by Law 51 of September 29, 2010, will do its duty and end the malaise that over the months has became a real threat to human health. The president himself concentrated that responsibility with the creation of this new entity, placing a bet that centralized management will bring the situation back to normal. That's how the AAUD was born, and as of 3 January 2011, a countdown begins for the citizens who want to see the problems with garbage become a thing of the past in the shortest time possible.
MANY DREAMS - Enrique Ho is 37 years old and he has both a bachelor's and master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Tennessi (USA), who has been charged with the responsibility of restoring public confidence to live in a cleaner city. He is conscious of the challenge, but also of the limitations. Fortunately, with presidential support - he admits being a friend of the president - maybe that will help make the burden more bearable. "I didn't study Business Administration for nothing" he says, "I will apply everything I learned in this project, and it can't go wrong," he said. What he doesn't know is that, with the obvious garbage crisis affecting the 21 districts of Panama City, is under watchful eye of those residents who are eagerly waiting for a fast response. He admits he has not established a firm time schedule to normalize the situation but he says he will focus of the first three months of the year, with both short and long term goals.
TOOLS - As of yesterday the DIMAUD had only 27 operational garbage trucks that crawled over their daily routes, but at this time of year there are an additional 750 tons of trash generated daily, in addition to the normal load of 1,300 tons daily. The director of the AAUD said that since the entity started to function administratively, they started to look at the methodology being used to meet the challenge. They concluded they required at least 75 compactor trucks. To reach that goal they will rent, in the first week of January, an additional 25 trucks, add that to the existing 27 trucks they had repaired and inherited from the Dimaud, and then find other supplemental ways to meet the demand. For example, the rest they will do with backhoes and dump trucks.
The old Dimaud hid behind complaints of a lack of economic resources, and the irresponsibility of the citizens and their failure to pay their monthly fees. However, to avoid this part of the process, Ho married the payments for garbage collection to the bills for electricity to make bill collection more effective. Another provision is the establishment of special judges and courts to seize property of those who are in arrears, in order to obtain the resources necessary for the maintenance of garbage trucks.
ALERTS - For his part, Health Minister Franklin Vergara, reiterated that until the problem is controlled in the city a health alert will remain in effect to prevent the spread of diseases, especially when there is an international threat of cholera. All eyes are on the new entity as of today, so that in the shortest possible time the piles of garbage that have been accumulating in the city streets will be taken away.
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Date Retrieved: January 1, 2011.
