The government has proposed an amendment to the Decentralisation Act that would formally add waste management to the list of essential services island and city councils are required to provide.
The bill, submitted by Hamad Abdulla, the member of Parliament for Fuvahmulah North constituency, was read for the first time at Tuesday’s sitting of the People’s Majlis.
The proposed amendment seeks to make two changes to the Decentralisation of Administrative Areas Act. The first would amend Article 69-1(a) by adding waste management as a mandatory council service, alongside existing obligations such as electricity, water, sanitation and sewerage services.
If passed, the change would place waste management squarely within the statutory responsibilities of local councils, giving clearer legal effect to their role in handling one of the most persistent public service challenges faced by islands and cities across the Maldives.
The second change concerns the administrative staff of the Local Government Authority, or LGA. Under the current law, LGA administrative employees are appointed by the authority’s board, based on the advice of the chief executive officer.
The proposed amendment would instead classify LGA administrative staff as civil servants. After the bill becomes law, such employees would be appointed by the Civil Service Commission, in consultation with the LGA chief executive officer.
The CEO would remain the responsible senior official of the authority.
The bill comes as the government has decided to bring atoll councils, which include a large number of civil service employees, under the Local Government Authority. That follows earlier changes to the decentralisation framework under which atoll councils were abolished.
The proposed changes could mark a further restructuring of local governance, shifting both service delivery and administrative control closer to a centralised public administration model while keeping councils responsible for essential services at island and city level.
Waste management has long been a politically and administratively difficult issue for local councils, particularly in outer islands where limited land, weak collection systems and inadequate transfer arrangements have made rubbish disposal a recurring public concern.
By adding waste management directly to the legal list of council services, the amendment would make the responsibility clearer. It may also increase pressure on councils to improve collection, disposal and management systems, while raising questions over whether councils will receive the funding, technical capacity and regulatory support needed to carry out the expanded mandate.
