Kulhudhuffushi Mayor warns against dumping Male' region waste on Kunburudhoo

The decision by WAMCO to take burnt waste from the K. Thilafushi site to H.Dh. Kunburudhoo is unacceptable, Kulhudhuffushi Mayor Mohamed Athif said on Tuesday.

A fire broke out in the WAMCO Regional Waste Management Facility in Thilafushi on Sunday night and was extinguished the following morning.

WAMCO said the fire had forced the closure of parts of the site and disrupted some services.

The company’s HR General Manager, Mohamed Shan, told Sun on Tuesday that work to move waste from Thilafushi to the waste management facility in Kunburudhoo would begin on Wednesday.

In a Facebook post, Athif said the garbage should not be taken to Kunburudhoo. He pointed out that large lagoons such as Gulhifalhu and Uthuru Thila Falhu near Male’, as well as Hulhumale’ Phase III and Fushidhiggaru lagoon, have space for dumping, noting that these areas were dredged using public tax revenue.

“...It is unacceptable to dump garbage from across the country on a naturally beautiful island in the middle of an atoll with only a few uninhabited islands like Haa Dhaalu. Taking waste from this region to Kunburudhoo should not be considered in the first place,” he wrote.

Several others from the atoll who commented on the mayor’s post also expressed opposition to the waste being taken to Kunburudhoo.

“I am against putting garbage in Kunburudhoo. Kurinbee is a peaceful, inhabited island just 1.7 miles away. When waste is dumped in Kunburudhoo, mosquitoes, flies and the stench become unbearable in Kurinbee, and we cannot sit and allow this to happen,” one commenter wrote.

The fire at the WAMCO site in Thilafushi has disrupted day-to-day services in the Male’ City area, causing waste pileups in Villimale’, Male’ and Hulhumale’.

WAMCO noted that operations at the transfer facilities in Male’, Villimale’ and Hulhumale’ have been affected, forcing a reduction in the amount of waste received. However, the company said it is working earnestly to bring the site back to normal.

The Male’ City Council visited WAMCO on Tuesday to address the reduction in waste acceptance, pressuring the state-owned company to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

More than 200,000 people live in the Male’ City area, and tons of garbage are transported to Thilafushi every day. According to 2022 statistics, 1,200 tonnes of garbage are transported daily from the Male’ region to Thilafushi.