Nairobi — Mombasa council has come under sharp criticism for dumping garbage in open spaces.

Residents said that despite a cholera alert in town, the council was using part of the parking area at Makadara grounds and an open space near Kisauni market as dumpsites.

"The council continues to give mixed signals on cholera with one department claiming the disease has been contained while another closes food outlets without doing anything about the filth in the streets," Mr Jonathan Mburu said.

Residents said they were concerned that the council was harassing food vendors instead of ensuring the environment they were operating in was clean.

"If the vendors are operating in dirty surroundings, it is because the council is not doing its job," Mr Ali Ramadhan said.

Town Clerk Tubmun Otieno disputed this, saying residents were to blame as they dumped their garbage anywhere.

"Residents carelessly dump garbage. We are, however, educating them on proper waste disposal while we step up our garbage collection capacity," he said.

He said the open dumping sites residents were complaining about were temporary collection points before the daily waste collection was done.

Collection

Mr Otieno said efforts to start a 24-hour garbage collection exercise were being frustrated by the high rate of waste generation.

Last week, Public Health minister Beth Mugo said during a visit to the Coast that cholera had been contained and only diarrhoea cases were being reported.

This was confirmed by Coast provincial director of public health Anisa Omar who said the centre would continue to test patients for cholera.