If you’ve been reading my blog for a long time then you might remember my posts on the garbage situation behind my house in Salmiya. It’s been a problem thats been ongoing for over a decade now and I’ve posted about it a number of times on the blog before. Usually what happens is I post pictures of the garbage dump behind my house, baladiya find out about it and send trucks to clean up, a week later problem is back again.
For YEARS I’ve posted about how there aren’t enough garbage bins and since then more buildings have popped up which means more garbage but instead of the bins increasing over the year they’ve decreased.
A while back I gave up and decided to no longer post about the garbage because I was starting to sound like a broken record and honestly, I’m just too tired and exhausted to fight. I’ve really become a pretty chill person and very little really bothers me nowadays. But things are also just getting worse and worse and today I just couldn’t take it anymore. Before I left to work I decided to take and tweet the picture above and then left the house. A few hours later while in a meeting I found out my tweet went viral and since then I’ve been getting a ton of support but also some stupid comments I really don’t want to have to deal with.
To summarize my Salmiya garbage issue, basically, the garbage overflows every single day because there aren’t enough garbage bins to cater to the residents and shops. Tomorrow someone will come and clean up the mess because of my tweet but nobody really is solving this problem and so it keeps happening over and over again. I keep saying we need more bins and I’ve been saying that for over a decade now but nobody cares.
As I’m writing this post my brother who lives next door sent me the picture above. The baladiya are here now picking up the garbage. I’m really grateful for sure, and I’m not trying to sound pessimistic here but, unless they add more bins, this overflowing garbage issue is going to keep happening.
Update: So they cleaned up one corner last night but the other side where there were 6 bins and I posted saying that 6 weren’t enough and we needed more, well, today they came and took 3 of the bins leaving just 3. I feel like they might be trolling me.
44 replies on “Salmiya Garbage Update 2019”
I can’t believe this has BIN going on for garbAGES.
Try harder.
Not so punny funny 😉
cringe
Man I can’t take a walk smells like gas
Same in sabah. We had two bins now there is only one front and back and the bins are Overflowing. What is the thinking behind it?
Send the pics to @kuwaitneedsyou it’s an Instagram account ,( I hope I got the right account) and to the kuwait municipality account.
@kuwmun is their twitter account
Can you send them in Mangaf, Block 4 please? 😅
2 line streets are now one line here because another line is occupied by garbage 😠
I wish it was as simple as adding bins.
People here need to change their mentality about littering…
But I think I’m this situation, which I’ve been reading about since the first post, more bins would definitely help. But spread them out, salmiya and Hawalli have this problem where they only group the bins in some dirt lot
If something smells in your neighborhood, who ya gonna call? WASTA!
*cringe*
In Abbasiya/jleeb almost all the roads are blocked due to the over flowing of garbage. 🙂
Same issue with Nasser Al Bader St, near Rabah fish shop,, its worse caz the fish shop is dumping all their waste and that fish shop creates such a bad atmosphere around that area due to their fish water dripping from vans and their shops and flies all over… its a total unhygienic mess
I live in Salmiya and walk my dog at night. On many occasions i have seen guys driving around in a truck looking for places to dump their garbage. They will stop and fill up all the bins, plus dump bags next to the bins in the street. One night I got so mad I shouted at them and took photos of them plus the registration plate of the truck. They got really angry and made a few phonecalls to someone who told them to carry on dumping. They stopped filling these bins for a while, but lately have been at it again. I would not even know who to report them to, but I am guessing that nothing would be done if I did.
I agree with needing more bins, but we would also need these bins to be emptied more often (and properly). More than that though, people need to become more educated about littering. Looking at your first picture, 4 out of 6 bins are not even full! The yellow one in the middle looks like its even completely empty! The problem is that people are too lazy to dispose of their rubbish properly into the bins and instead just throw the bags NEXT to it.
I took the picture after the garbage trucks left. They came, emptied the bins and left leaving behind all the garbage around the bins.
You are right.
People walk all the way from their flat to down the building and then to the bin but when they reaches to the bin instead of putting the garbage bag into the bin they simply try to experience the basket ball throw which eventually fails and ended up throwing outside the bin. They simply don’t bother to walk few more steps to the bin….what a pitty.
even the young kids follows the same practice.
The whole burden lies on the parents to educate their children how to deal with garbage and after effects of it which world is already experiencing.
The world is already
What I noticed that Cleaners from each building dropping the garbage on the ground.
Apparently the problem also lies with the idea to empty the bins and not take the trash that is lying outside the bin…which keeps getting piled up once the bins are filled…
Broken roads, garbage everywhere, no jobs, companies bankrupt…Kuwait is in a really bad place these days…
Just read that garbage issue is due to the change in contracts of the cleaning company. Hopefully this is sorted soon. They have to be more systematic.
Live in Salmiya Abu Dhar Ghfari Street, we don’t have this issue, lucky us
Lol
Try q8needsyou on Instagram
Also I understand the baladiya has an app and a phone Whatsapp for any issues u Basically take a picture send the location and describe the issue and they send some one over
would you mind sharing their whatsapp number here?
Dear Mark,
So devastating to see that view!
Some landowners don’t wish to pay for dumpster rentals and think of saving that cost which may lead to over-trash.
I own a dumpster company and I would be happy to offer discounts just to have the area clean!
Please feel free to contact me at #60375524.
Keeping Kuwait clean is our priority.
Best Regards,
Latifa
wait what is a dumpster company???
Yes What is that?!
Comment about how this happens to expat areas only so expats need to leave>
Mark: “I’ve really become a pretty chill person and very little really bothers me nowadays.”
Bin allocation person at Baladiya: “Hold my istikana…”
OK, that was funny. I’ll give you that
I find it strange the amount of garbage that people put out daily. On several occasions while visiting the US and staying in self catered houses, the rules regarding trash has always been the same or similar. There is never daily pickup, there are only certain days which trucks come and pick up garbage, and you are only allowed to put your garbage out the night before they come, otherwise you will get fined. I never saw garbage except on those days with pickup and there were never large dumps of garbage. Its not like people here cant follow suit, but its always been that you put your garbage outside whenever you feel like, daily and it would disappear. Times have changed and the number of people living in Kuwait’s increased and some thing has to give.
They should implement something similar here, where does each household produce so much trash on a daily basis is ridiculous.
Even in Block 10 they have been just emptying the bins. They do not clean any of the garbage that is spilled on the road.
The cleaners also do not clean the roads properly.
And to everyone wondering how households produce so much dump and garbage on a daily basis – that is due to the lack of planning. The authorities keep sanctioning high rise buildings when clearly the existing infrastructure (roads, sewage, cleaning etc.) is not capable of such high population density.
And the problem is aggravated even more with the widespread lack of general civic awareness w.r.t. cleanliness.
So if this is the situation when expats are assigned to garbage collection, imagine what will happen if they are kicked out thanks to a certain MP, and Kuwaitization is implemented!
Lately I’ve seen a lot of garbage related issues around Kuwait on social media. Thank god Salwa has no issues.
Anyways, I was at the barber shop yesterday then this topic came up and a guy said he works for one of the contracted companies and recently they have changed the contracted company and there was a huge confusion on it. Apparently that was the main reason to it and he also mentioned his company still doesn’t have enough trucks to pick them up and they are waiting for some 100 new dumpsters to arrive.
Not really a reliable source of information but I felt like sharing it.
Haven’t you seen the bins by OnCost next to KES?! Disgusting. Those bins are always overflowing and have only gotten worse recently. One of the issues is they never clean the actual dumpsters themselves…. the stink coming off of them is just disgusting!
This is a perfect opportunity to test Safaa Al-Hashem’s vision of Kuwaitization. Give those jobs to deserving Kuwaitis. Deport the expats (or perhaps they have already which is why they’re having a problem with refuse collection).
You do know that lots of expats live in Salmiya though?
It’s not just that there aren’t pick ups to have the trash emptied or enough garbage bins. It’s also the attitudes of the people living there that reinforces this problem. Maybe nobody cares enough take action or is waiting for someone else to take it. I’ve seen lots of cases where people are just too lazy to throw the bag INSIDE the dumpster, and just leave it out on the side for some reason. Salmiya is such a crowded place and there are so many businesses around too that the piles are filling up faster than they can be removed. Its also an eyesore to see so many dumpsters around which will eventually overflow again no matter what. It’s like a cycle where the garbage keeps accumulating.
Well in Spain: they have underground bins that they empty every night and they scrub wash the sidewalks, Just Sayin.
The bins are Rented out by the apartment buildings, call your cheap landlord to talk to the Cleaning Company that is Maintaining your neighborhood.
The bins arent within the Scope of the Municipality Waste Management Contracts.
Cleaning Company = Baladiya = their scope
Maybe the bins are getting deported
same situation at Salmiya Block 10 – the Garbage container of our locality (Salmiya Block 10 ) is overflowing due to non-cleaning. The rotten waste materials emanating bad smell thus making the people of the nearby area to wear a scarf around their nose. If the same condition prevails for few more days then there will be a chance of spreading disease, increased flies, insects, mosquitoes etc.. That garbage unclean area is a breeding centre for insects. we cant imagine , flies , insects passing thru that garbage area and enter our home .The condition is becoming worse day by day. Among the other things, one of the main reason include nearby bakala (Eddee Stores) throw all leftover vegetables in cartoon boxes here .We, the resident of salmiya are un-aware of the reason why baladia/cleaning contractor neglected their duties.They do come on a daily basis for cleaning but what they are cleaning, it is they only know .
Kuwait is a great country and it is known for its rich environment which is safe, healthy and better hygiene . Looking at this picture , seems like cleaning contractors will very soon deteriorate country image.
This is a serious violation of cleaning contractor’s duty and whoever responsible for supervision.