Azuero Mayors Call on Central Government to Address Waste Management Crisis

Fourteen mayors from the Herrera and Los Santos regions held a meeting to analyze the growing problem of solid waste collection and disposal. The mayors agreed that it is unsustainable to keep municipal landfills open for so many years due to the negative impact they have on community health, reiterating that only with the support of the Central Government can a comprehensive and sustainable solution be found to the solid waste management problem in Azuero. Among the main problems, the mayors stated that multimillion-dollar investments are needed, which only the Central Government can assume, as this type of situation cannot be resolved solely with municipal resources. As a result of the meeting, the mayors issued a joint statement calling on national authorities to visit the Azuero region to hold an expanded meeting to analyze viable alternatives for managing existing landfills in Herrera and Los Santos. During the meeting, several mayors exposed the difficulties they currently face, including the lack of adequate landfills for the final disposal of waste, a situation that poses a serious risk to public health and the environment. Most municipalities in Azuero are subsidized and largely depend on the Central Government to execute high-cost projects. The mayor of Guararé, Amado Franco, representing the group of municipal authorities, stated that beyond the low payment for the cleaning fee by the population, the economic reality of the interior municipalities limits their capacity to respond. Among them, critical cases stand out, such as some districts that have dumped waste for decades on private lands and, in addition, lack adequate equipment to collect garbage daily and not affect the population. This is because, they said, some municipalities even lack an authorized site to deposit garbage, which further aggravates the problem.