Waste collection and municipal cleaning services will be handed over to two private companies, subject to public approval, according to an official from Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC).
A tender to privatise garbage collection was floated last year and two companies – City Environmental Co Ltd and TYTC Services Co Ltd – were selected out of seven firms for the 10-year contract.
City Environmental was selected for waste collection for eastern and southern Yangon and TYTC for western and northern Yangon.
However, the contract will be finalised only if the public gives the final go ahead, YCDC officials said.
“We have started collecting feedback from the public in 33 townships under YCDC’s jurisdiction. We will collect opinions from about 520,000 households and submit the results to the regional government. We will decide whether to privatise the waste collection services or not based on the public’s reaction,” U Min Aung, head of YCDC’s Environmental Preservation and Cleaning Department, said.
When YCDC floated the tender it insisted that the service charges will remain the same, although YCDC itself previously said the current fees only cover about one-third of its operational costs.
The current service charges range from K300 to K600 per month for one household depending on townships. This will go up to K1,200-1,600 for the private companies’ services, officials said. It is likely that Yangonites may not be in favour of the rate hike for privatised waste collection.
U Khin Win, deputy head of the department, said YCDC spends K13.3 million to collect about 1,600 tonnes of garbage in Yangon every day.
Currently, YCDC provides waste collection and cleaning services using 451 garbage collection vehicles. It has over 8,700 dumpsters in Yangon, 3,000 collection carts and 4,000 workers.
“We will not allow the private companies to pay wages less than the amount that the department pays to the cleaners right now. In terms of equipment, the firms will be allowed to buy those from the department if necessary.”
