Nighttime Cleaning in Maputo: Experts point to lack of national policy

Maputo - Under the rain and in the silence of the night, the Maputo Municipal Council, through the Municipal Sanitation and Drainage Company (EMSD), launched a special cleaning operation to try to minimize the accumulation of waste and the bad odors affecting the capital. The initiative comes in a context of an overloaded sanitation system, where the maximum capacity of inhabitants and services has placed enormous challenges on waste management.

On Friday night, EMSD teams were deployed to work on several main roads in the city in an attempt to address the collapse in waste collection. The nighttime operation aims not only to alleviate the daytime backlog but also to facilitate logistics in less congested traffic. However, this temporary measure exposes a deeper structural problem.

According to the newspaper Preto e Branco, the city has reached a critical point: population growth and the expansion of services have not been accompanied by an effective waste treatment system. Despite the efforts of the Municipal Council, sources interviewed for this report reveal that Mozambique lacks a clear and robust policy for solid waste management.

One of the problems highlighted is the lack of control over access to the containers and the municipal landfill. "The waste deposited in the containers ends up, through other means, returning to our homes," denounced a source connected to the sector. This happens, in part, due to the actions of informal waste pickers who rummage through the waste without any kind of rigorous oversight.

The situation is aggravated by the hazardous nature of the materials. Because the waste is not segregated, the containers accumulate all types of garbage, including expired and potentially hazardous waste, putting public health and the environment at risk.

While the nighttime operation attempts to stem the immediate crisis—combating overcrowding and nauseating smells—experts and residents agree that the measure, although necessary, does not solve the root of the problem. The lack of an integrated national strategy for basic sanitation keeps the city in a vicious cycle: garbage is collected today, but due to a lack of proper treatment and control, it will threaten the community again tomorrow.