Skip bins to continue to be provided for informal settlements until a system is set up for them to pay garbage fees

Minister for Local Government Premila Kumar says they will continue to provide skip bins to informal settlements around the country until they can work out a system for people in these informal settlements to pay garbage fees.

People residing in informal settlements currently do not pay rates and are provided skip bins by the different town and city councils. 

Kumar says people also have to remember that the rubbish problem is not exclusively in informal settlements for populated areas in Nasinu.

She says they will work on a proper system to ensure that there not mountains of rubbish in skip bins provided for informal settlements.

Kumar says they have used Suva City Council staff to go out in Nasinu to analyse and do diagnostic work and come back with a plan on how they can do garbage collection efficiently.

She says they want a team that will include enforcement officers as well as rate collection team.

Kumar says they will come up with how big the team should be, what kind of resources do they need, and what would be the cost.

She adds once they come up with the plan, they will roll it out.

Kumar says they have been doing a lot of brainstorming recently and are using the Suva City Council as a model municipal council based on how they manage garbage collection and the municipality.