Tangier’s Waste Crisis Deepens as Cleaning Companies Struggle to Cope

The current situation is the result of the failures of "Arma and Mecomar", the two companies in charge of the cleanliness and household and similar waste sectors. According to the daily Al Akhbar, they did not expect to win the 300 million dirham contract and find themselves overwhelmed by the tasks to be carried out. The newspaper specifies that the companies in question were not prepared for this mission and did not have the means to carry out the work.

Overwhelmed by the reality on the ground, Arma and Mecomar have resorted to subcontracting and the services of other companies for the equipment and garbage collection trucks, indicates the publication. They have hired workers from distant cities, particularly from Khémisset, by signing fixed-term contracts with them and prohibiting them from taking union action.

Currently with their backs to the wall, the two Moroccan companies had replaced the Solamta company which had thrown in the towel against a penalty of around three million dirhams imposed by the urban municipality of Tangier. With a total cost of 300 million dirhams, the delegated management of the cleanliness and household and similar waste sector consumes 60% of the Tangier city council’s budget.