NMS to launch monthly clean-ups as garbage piles in city

 

Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) will launch monthly clean-up exercises from next month as it steps up efforts to rid the city of garbage.

At the same time, residents who flout waste disposal rules have been warned that punitive measures will be taken against them.

The clean-up, which will cover all the 17 sub-counties in Nairobi, will take place on the first Saturday of every month.

This comes at a time when the capital city is chocking under heaps of garbage which is a ticking health hazard with a number of streets having illegally disposed piles of solid waste and pools of sewage.

Daily solid waste

Nairobi County, with a population of approximately five million people, generates a daily solid waste of 3,000 tons, having increased from 2,500 tons.

However, NMS is only able to collect an average of 2,500 tons every day, up from the initial 1,000 tons per day that City Hall used to collect.

“NMS is set to commence a monthly clean-up exercise on the first Saturday of every month with the commencement date to be shared soon,” said the Major General Mohammed Badi-led administration.

Last week, NMS flagged off eight trucks for collection of garbage that has been disposed haphazardly in Eastleigh, Kamukunji Constituency.

A total of 15 tonnes of the solid waste left on road reserves, and front yards of residential and commercial premises was collected.

In October last year, Maj-Gen Badi said city residents will be required to take part in monthly clean-ups of their neighbourhoods where each and every citizen of Nairobi County is supposed to dedicate one day a month in the exercise. He said NMS is waiting for a go ahead from Parliament.

He explained the move is part of a new "do it ourselves initiative" that his administration has adopted where residents, corporate and government agencies will help in keeping their environment clean.

The once-a-month clean-up exercise is not new to Nairobi residents as former Governor Mike Sonko’s regime had a similar initiative which was launched in 2018.

Under the Ng'arisha Jiji programme, Sonko’s administration used to carry out monthly solid waste clean-ups every first Saturday of each month but the exercise has been inconsistent since the arrest of the governor in December 2019.

As part of plans to rid the city of garbage, NMS plans to establish waste recovery facilities across the 17 sub-Counties in the capital as well as separation of waste at the household level by Nairobi residents.