Heavy fire on waste collection in Rabat. During the ordinary session of the City Council held last Tuesday in the capital, the councillors did not seek to hide their anger, denouncing hazardous and irrational delegated management. Reporting on the situation of their districts in the absence of effective and serious intervention by the delegated companies, the elected officials called on the City Council for a rapid and well-oriented intervention in order to call the companies to order. The comment of the Deputy Mayor of the city, Abdelmounim Madani, was not long in coming. According to this official, the bad situation in which Rabat finds itself today is the result of a accumulation of several years of poor management of this sector, stressing that the biggest mistake made by the City Council management a few years ago was the non-inclusion of the clause for the renewal of the fleet and the maintenance of equipment in the specifications. In the absence of such a legal framework, the delegated companies take advantage of this legal vacuum to not replace worn-out containers and maintain their equipment in order to reduce costs. A policy of laissez-faire that has not been without consequences for the capital, which has been living in chaos for several months. Black spots are multiplying and waste is littering the ground. "Several shortcomings have been noted in the contracts initially concluded between the city council and the delegated companies, namely Cita, TechMed, and Veolia. No clause in the current contract requires these service providers to renew their equipment or replace defective equipment with new ones. Yet, the municipality of Rabat pays more than 100 million dirhams each year to pay for the services of the three companies," stresses Mr. Madani.

But besides the difficulty of negotiating with these companies a renewal of their fleet in the absence of any binding framework, the municipality of Rabat found itself with its back to the wall three weeks ago since the total abandonment of the service by the company Veolia, which expressed its intention to terminate the contract. Caught off guard, the council is currently managing a transitional situation that could not be more complicated.

Indeed, it is the municipality's teams that are responsible for monitoring and guiding Veolia's employees while awaiting its departure scheduled for next November. Until then, the company has agreed with the council to bring more than 350 containers and maintain its equipment in order to guarantee better service quality. "This solution is the most practical at this moment, but the council has planned other scenarios in case the company decides on an early departure before the announcement of the call for tenders," explains the Deputy Mayor. Among the scenarios studied, the council is examining that of replacing Veolia with another delegated company. The other scenario in view is the application of Article 25, which gives the council the right

to directly manage this public service in case the city's sanitation is not respected Y. A.

According to the Deputy Mayor of Rabat, new specifications are being prepared to renegotiate the service delegation contracts with the other companies in charge of this sector. These contracts will be the subject of negotiations with the said companies once the Veolia file is settled. "We have planned to put in place new terms of reference according to which we will define the appropriate collection method for each district, we will specify the equipment to be used, the appropriate containerisation method for each urban sector, and even the expected results," explains Mr. Moumni. Once the new terms of reference are drawn up, the Council will renegotiate each contract with the three delegated companies with a view to finding

new solutions for upgrading their service.