In an interview with the EL INFORMADOR newspaper, Rafael Meneses, Atesa’s legal representative, assured that in the 10 months of operation they have been in Santa Marta they have only held one round table with the District Mayor’s Office.
The ‘rifirrafe’ that has originated between the company Atesa and the Mayor’s Office de Santa Marta continues to generate concerns among citizens. On this occasion, the strong complaints made by the district administration, put in ‘check’ the work done by the cleaning company in the capital of Magdalena.
After the mayor’s statement Virna Johnson, Rafael Meneses, legal representative of Atesa spoke for the chambers of the Newspaper THE INFORMER and stressed that since Atesa’s arrival they have been available to work with the district administration; however, it has not been possible to execute the work tables to mitigate the misuse that has been made of these elements.
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“The issue of containers dates back to 2015, when the Rafael Martínez administration was asked to implement an innovative system for waste collection. During the process, the installation and execution of the project was carried out, but over the years the relationship between the Cleaning companies and the administration deteriorated. To such an extent that, since we We arrived 10 months ago, we have only held a single work table with the Mayor’s Office, which has made it impossible to improve our services. We have always been willing,” said Meneses.
He also indicated that waste collection in Santa Marta is subject to Decree 193, which regulates the behavior of users to handle this type of elements; however, some inconveniences have been revealed that call into question the work carried out by Atesa.
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“It should be mentioned that Decree 193 establishes the behavior that users must have in front of containers. The containers are only for the deposit of ordinary waste, they are not for throwing pruning, debris, dead animals or food waste. Due to this misuse of these elements, it is that we have been having problems ”.
In turn, he added that “beyond the lack of civic culture, the district administration also started a campaign against the containerization system, which has circumstantially affected our operation. This system works correctly in other places, but here it is very difficult, especially when we don’t have anyone’s support. However, the company will continue working to improve the service day by day”.
In the middle of the intervention the newspaper EL INFORMADOR, Rafael Meneses also referred to the processes that the different entities of the District omitted to regulate the problem of containers in Santa Marta.
“Not everything is the responsibility of Atesa. Some District entities are not executing certain processes to improve this service. They should implement actions to control the handling that users are giving to the containers, require them to respect schedules and carry out activities so that this type of situation does not arise”.
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Added to the fractured relationship that exists between Atesa and the Mayor’s Office are the complaints made by Jaime Avendaño, director of Dadsa, who assured that the institution is not adequately carrying out the tree pruning service in the city. “Since we arrived they told us that in Santa Marta 93,024 trees must be pruned during the year and we have fulfilled our task. The inventory that the Dadsa gave of the trees was with that figure, I do not understand what the reasons are, what I do have clear is that Atesa is complying with pruning the trees, only that it is a task that is carried out throughout the year ”, held.
Finally, Meneses made a call to the Mayor’s Office led by Virna Johnson and pointed out that “since we arrived in Santa Marta we have shown a willingness to work with the district administration, and proof of this some rapprochements have been achieved but this has not been enough. We have never received support from the District, on the contrary, they have only attacked us and issued complaints without valid arguments. My call is to establish a work group to mitigate all these problems that are affecting the community”.