Rédaction Africa Links 24 with lexpress
Published on 2024-02-28 02:45:00
Signatories of the partnership agreement, at Ambohijatovo Ambony.
The urban municipality of Antananarivo is not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The property tax collection rate is very low.
The issue of waste collection in the capital is not going to be resolved anytime soon. The lack of resources, cited as the main cause of the difficulties in household waste collection, persists. “According to the Urban Municipality of Antananarivo (CUA), only 13% of taxpayers paid the property tax on built properties in 2023,” said the Minister of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Fidiniavo Ravokatra, yesterday, in the context of the signing of a partnership agreement between the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (MEAH) and the non-governmental organization (NGO) Welthungerhilfe (WHH) on solid waste management, held at the ministry headquarters in Ambohijatovo Ambony.
With this very low collection rate, it is difficult for the Municipal Sanitation Company (SMA), responsible for waste collection in the capital, to empty the bins daily, as desired by residents. “It is with the Waste Collection Fee (ROM) that the SMA mainly operates,” noted a source who requested anonymity.
Low contribution
And to collect the 1,200 m3 of waste daily, it would be necessary to make at least a hundred trips per day in total. For a single trip between the landfill site in Andralanitra and the waste bins, a 12 m3 truck would consume nearly 20 liters. “Nearly 10 million ariary per day are thus needed, just for the purchase of fuel. But there are other expenses, such as vehicle maintenance, staff salaries,” continued this source.
The former mayor of Antananarivo, Naina Andriantsitohaina, had already raised this low contribution of residents to the development of the capital. In a special program broadcast in December 2022, he declared: “If you refuse to pay taxes, the city will never be clean.” Fidiniavo Ravokatra calls on the taxpayers of the city of Antananarivo, who are nearly two hundred thousand, to pay their taxes. “Waste management is everyone’s responsibility. That of the population is the payment of taxes. So we must make efforts to pay these taxes to our district,” he said.
Read the original article(French) on lexpress.mg
