Siggiewi residents angry over poor waste collection system

Many Siggiewi residents are furious that the locality's waste collection management is not doing its job on a regular basis, according to one resident, Joe Catania. 

Catania, whose house is located on Triq il-Buskett, close to the cart ruts and Clapham junction (Misrah Ghar il-Kbir), is a permanent resident of the UK but often comes down to Malta. 

Catania, who contacted MaltaToday this morning, claimed that the rubbish has not been collected since Thursday of last week, and said that the issue had been going on for some time prior to that, too. 

"Apart from Thursday of last week, the rubbish has not been collected for two whole weeks," he said. 

"It is a shame that the Siggiewi council is neglecting such a historic place like this," he said. 

Catania said that when he contacted the local council, he was informed that the contractor had recently been changed and that the new contractor was not yet fully aware of the particular addresses he had to visit. 

When contacted by MaltaToday though, Nikol Baldacchino - secretary of the Siggiewi local council - said that the new contractor only started work yesterday. 

Instead, he placed blame on the previous contractor who, he said, was doing a lacklustre job in the final days before the termination of his contract. 

"I admit that the garbage collector was not doing a good job. We have addressed this issue and can reassure residents that, with a new contractor now in place, these issues should not arise," he said. 

On being told that, according to residents, the issue has been going on for some time, Baldacchino said that the council was not obliged to collect the waste of persons who were not residing in Malta permanently. He said that this could be the problem in Catania's particular case.

Baldacchino did stress though that the waste management system in Siggiewi was sure to improve with a new contractor in place.