Vashagandu Council Four thousand nine hundred people, one harbour, and a waste problem we are dealing with in public
Notices, tenders and the waste scheme

The old dump closes in March. Here is what happens instead

Three bags per household, two collection rounds, one new waste centre being built at the south end. This page carries the dates, the fees, the tender notices and the things we are asking every household to do.

Read the waste scheme Report or complain
Three things we are asking for

None of this works without the households

Separate into three

Food waste, bottles and tins together, everything else. Three bags, two rounds. A mixed bag is left on the road and a sticker put on it.

Out before six, not the night before

A bag on the road at nine at night is open by daylight. Most of the mess on Harbour Magu is made by good intentions twelve hours early.

Nothing burned in a yard

Burning plastic in a yard on an island this size puts smoke through forty houses. Report it and the council will deal with it.

The desks

What the office does, and what it charges

Eight services, each with the fee, the hours and what to bring. The harbour has its own office and its own hours.

Household waste: three bags, two rounds

Food waste daily except Friday, recycling and general waste on alternate mornings, one hundred rufiyaa a month per household.

Read more

Harbour berths, dues and the loading slots

Thirty eight boats a week, a berthing slot booked through the harbour office, and dues paid at the council counter.

Read more

Heavy vehicles, lorry hours and the road rules

Where lorries and tractors may run, the hours they may not, and how to get a permit for a delivery outside them.

Read more

The covered market and the stalls

Twenty two stalls, a monthly rent of four hundred rufiyaa, and a waiting list that is published.

Read more

Letters, copies and the island register

Address and household letters, certified copies and letters of introduction. Twenty five rufiyaa, usually the same day.

Read more

Roads, lighting, drains and public areas

Report a fault and get a reference the same day. The crew works the list on Sunday and Wednesday mornings.

Read more
See every desk

Why the waste scheme is the first thing on this page

Vashagandu generates about nine tonnes of household waste a week, and for nineteen years all of it went to an open site at the south end of the island, three hundred metres from the nearest house.

That site is full, it burns without anybody lighting it, and the smoke crosses the school on a westerly wind. The council has been asked about it at every open meeting for four years.

So it closes in March, the new centre takes its place, and the separation scheme is what makes the new centre work rather than becoming a second open pile. A centre that receives mixed bags is a dump with a roof on it.

Every stage of this, including the tender documents and what each stage costs, is published on this site as it happens.

The island, in numbers

4,910
People on the island register
1,120
Households
9 tonnes
Household waste each week
38
Boats using the harbour weekly
Built and paid for

What the council has finished

The harbour extension, the street naming and numbering, and the covered market. What each cost and what it changed.

The harbour extension and the second ramp
Vashagandu Council 2025

The harbour extension and the second ramp

Ninety metres of new wall and a second ramp, which turned a harbour that lost a day a week into one that does not.
Street names and house numbers for the whole island
Vashagandu Council 2024

Street names and house numbers for the whole island

Every street signed and every one of one thousand one hundred and twenty households numbered, which sounds dull and changed more than the harbour did.
The covered market building
Vashagandu Council 2023

The covered market building

Twenty two stalls under one roof with water, drainage and ice, replacing thirty years of trading on the harbour road.
See the projects
From residents and boat owners

What people tell us

I argued against the two hour slots at the open meeting and I was wrong. I used to lose whole mornings waiting for one ramp. Now I know what time I am on it before I leave Male.

A Ahmed Rilwan Cargo boat owner, Vashagandu

The lorries used to come through at half past seven with the children on the road. It took two meetings and a log of dates, and now they do not. That is the council doing its job.

M Mariyam Haleema Resident, behind the school, Vashagandu

They put the market one street back and we all complained. Water at the stall, a floor that drains and ice at cost. I would not go back to the road.

H Hussain Shifaz Market stall holder, Vashagandu
The waste scheme

What goes in which bag, and what it costs

What goes in which bag?

Green is food waste only, collected every morning except Friday. Blue is bottles, tins, cans and clean plastic, collected Sunday and Wednesday. Grey is everything else, collected Monday and Thursday.

Rinse the blue bag items. A blue bag with a curry tin in it counts as general waste at the centre, which means the whole bag is handled twice.

What happens if a bag is mixed?

It is left on the road with a sticker on it, and taken on the next general waste round if it has been sorted by then.

Nobody enjoys this, the council included. It is the only measure that has worked anywhere it has been tried, and the alternative is a new waste centre that fills up like the old site did.

What does the household fee cover and why did it go up?

One hundred rufiyaa a month, replacing the sixty rufiyaa fee. It covers six collection mornings a week instead of three, the free Saturday garden waste round, and the running of the new centre.

Most households were already paying tractor charges two or three times a year on top of the old fee. For a typical household the year now costs slightly less than it did, and the council published that arithmetic before the decision rather than after it.

What do I do with rubble, a mattress or old engine oil?

Rubble, furniture and mattresses are a tractor job, booked through the office at two hundred rufiyaa a load. Garden waste goes on the free Saturday round, booked by Thursday.

Engine oil, batteries and tyres are taken at the waste centre gate and nowhere else, at no charge. Do not put any of them out for a round, and do not burn anything in a yard.

A tender is open until the end of the month

Fencing and gates for the new waste centre. Documents at the counter, and the notice is on this site with the closing date and the opening arrangements.

Read the notice Ring the office
Report, ask or complain

Write to the office

A missed collection, a light out, a yard being burned, a boat blocking the ramp. Every message gets a reference number and an answer within five working days.

We reply to every message. Leave a phone number if you would rather we called.

  • Where we are Council Office
    Harbour Magu, Vashagandu
    Maldives
  • Call us +960 662 7730
  • WhatsApp 9607627730
  • Email us office@vashagandu.mv
  • Opening hours Office: Sunday to Thursday, 8am to 3pm Payments counter: Sunday to Thursday, 8am to 2pm Harbour office: every day, 6am to 8pm Closed Friday and Saturday