Residents accuse a private company of failing to pick up trash on time.

Locals in the northern Shan State town of Muse say they are worried about sanitation issues resulting from a failure to pick up the city’s garbage.

Aung Garuna, a private company, has been contracted to collect Muse’s trash, but residents say that the company does not pick it up on time.

“They come to collect garbage whenever they want,” Muse resident Sai Maung said of Aung Garuna. “Garbage has been left in front of my house for five days. The smell is really bad.”

He added that the company does not fail to pick up the 2,000-kyat fees for its services on time, however.

“They regularly collect fees before the end of the month. If they cannot afford to collect the garbage, they should give up their contract. The city of Muse has become like a garbage city,” Sai Maung said.

Locals said that the garbage has spread around the clock tower in downtown Muse, as well as near the public hospital, banks, and in the streets.

“All the roads are full of garbage. Our city is full of gambling houses, drugs, and garbage. So our city is not beautiful,” local social outreach volunteer U Thaung Tun told SHAN.

Aung Garuna landed a 30-year contract to handle Muse’s garbage collection in 2015.

Locals protested against Aung Garuna in August 2017, alleging that the company had at that time also failed to systematically pick up the city’s trash.