With the Garden City growing in leaps and bounds, it’s attainment of a brand new garbage compactor truck is welcomed. In this regard, Mr. Hiroyuki Kubota, Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of Japan in Belize handed over the keys for a compactor truck last Thursday to Mayor Khalid Belisle, Councillors and members of staff of the Belmopan City Council.
In November 2017 the Belmopan City Council received a grant assistance ($175,078.00 Bze.) under Japan’s Grass-Roots Human Security Project to purchase said truck.
Mayor Belisle extended a big Thank You to the Government and people of Japan on Thursday and mentioned that the Council will continue the ongoing effort to keep Belmopan and the surrounding areas clean.
The new compactor truck will assist the Belmopan City Council in positive ways. Previously the Council had to contend with open-back trucks that spilled garbage on the highways. Also, with Belmopan growing at a rate of 6%, so has the demand for garbage collection.
While Hiroyuki Kubota has characterized this latest handing over as “tiny”, Belize and Japan had had that close friendship since Independence. Both countries have been cooperating in the international arena on environmental matters; especially as it relates to solid waste.
In speaking to the Guardian, Hiroyuki Kubota focused on the solid waste dilemma now facing the World. He said that plastic waste has become a global issue that has the potential to affect both the tourism and fisheries sector.
“The efforts on the solid waste management is linked up, and I hope this is a tiny part of the big picture of the challenge that may contribute in some other elements of this picture,” he said.
