Jude Édouard Pierre, the President of the National Federation of Haitian Mayors (FENAMH) and mayor of Carrefour, during a joint press conference, estimates that Port-au-Prince and the metropolitan region produce daily nearly 3,000 tonnes of waste, deploring the lack of a genuine real public waste policy.

Moreover, it is uncompromising about the inefficiency of the Metropolitan Solid Waste Collection Service (SMCRS), which collects less than 13% of waste in the metropolitan area. For the mayor of Carrefour, recycling is essential, pointing out that 73% of the waste that clutters our streets, are of organic origin and easily compostable, which represents a high economic potential in terms of natural fertilizer for the agricultural sector.

Marie-Claude F. Bayard, Director of the Foundation Odette Roy Fombrun agrees, saying that the recovery of waste can turn this urban plague as opportunity. However, she points out and that only Cité Soleil has a waste disposal site, deploring, moreover, the lack of civic education of citizens

For Rosny Desroches, Director of the Civil Society Initiative (ISC) if we want to attract tourists, we need cities and clean sites, He stresses that it is vain to believe that we can not hope attract tourists if they are greeted by mountains of waste landing in the destination. He proposes the creation of a communal council of volunteers of sanitation, to contribute to the fight against the fatras.

Faced with this growing scourge, FENAMH and civil society organizations have come together with the objective of setting up a special collection, sorting and recycling system for three categories of waste : plastics, organic waste and paper and cardboard so that our cities finally become clean and attractive.

TB/ HaitiLibre