In November of 2022, the Belize City Council signed a contract valuing over half a million Belize dollars to procure two garbage trucks. The first compactor arrived in February of 2024, and now the second one was handed over this morning as part of the Japanese grassroots initiative. The mayor told us how they will plan to put this one to use.

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"We are here to really get the handover from the Japanese grass roots human security program, The last compactor truck. If you recall in 2024 we received one of the trucks, following the agreement which was signed in 2022 which was for 2 compactor trucks and so today's events really encapsulate and really close off that agreement that we have signed in 2022 to have two compactor trucks, garbage trucks granted to The Belize City council."

"It really helps a lot because as you know many of the Southside areas we have a lot of hotspots, what we refer to as hot spots which are abandoned properties used for garbage dumps and so the current contract that we have with The Belize waste control does not provide for that type of pickup and so having two trucks now to provide that service along with our dump trucks really have us operate more efficiently and effectively."

"By way of our waste control contract residential garbage is supposed to be picked up by Belize waste control however we provide that sort of back end for those reasons that people just dump garbage in areas that are abandoned and so these two trucks help us alleviating that sort of behaviour in our city. "

Mayor Bernard says that both of these trucks will work day and night, and will collect and take the garbage directly to the dumpsite. He also spoke about their new vehicle fleet and how this will assist them in improving their response services across the city.

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"As you know when we came into office in 2018 we only had like two pickup trucks to facilitate service for The city enforcement, Traffic management and that point in time in 2018 we made a loan for 12 trucks, for a 5 year period and The trucks really did well for us they performed well over that period of 5 years but They deteriorated and depreciated over time and so as to not have them depreciate to the point where you don't get back anything what we have done with The existing trucks is trade those back in and in return get these 12 new pickup trucks, 7 of them are diesel and 5 of Them are Evs. And south the trade in value we took in it really lessened The amount but the total value here The 12 pickup trucks along with The 3 Futon utility trucks really run us about a 1.2 million dollars."

The Japan Ambassador to Belize expressed the value of their partnership with the Belize City Council in improving its sanitation mandate.

Nobuyuki Shirakata, Japan Ambassador to Belize
"It is anticipated that The garbage collection in Belize City in all 12 zones will increase from the current rate of 60%to100% thanks to the handing over from The government of Japan. I want to thank our partners from The Belize City Council as a stakeholder and beneficiary and custodian of this resource. Our hope is that the garbage truck will operate efficiently and sustainably to preserve and protect The city and moreover serve as a physical symbol of The strong bond between Japan and Belize."