Since the beginning of July this year, City of Kigali adopted the use of blowers to clean the city, a move credited for efficiency and improving the safety of city cleaners.
It is the latest among other machine or technology-based initiatives introduced in the city, which include cashless based transport payment system.
The initiative, according to officials, aims at bringing about efficiency in cleaning Kigali, which has been ranked by different indices as one of the cleanest cities in Africa.
So far, the city has deployed two trucks and 11 bowers to clean the streets and water the city gardens.
The move will phase-out brooms, which for long, have been used by city cleaners to sweep the streets.
While the technology has been appreciated as a valuable response to the changing demands of a fast-growing city, it threatens to erode hundreds of jobs in the city, mainly for women.
François Mvuyekure, the proprietor of Royal Cleaning Ltd, which was contracted by to carryout cleaning activities in the city, told The New Times that the move was inspired by the need to ensure efficiency.
"The traditional methods proved to be inefficient, and we chose to adopt the technology which is quicker,” he said. "We often receive cases of our workers who get minor accidents because of how exposed (to risk) they are.”
Mvuyekure said that the new initiative will eventually lead to the trimming down on the 218 cleaners, majority of them women, which the company employs.
He disclosed that the employees were also exposed to accidents in their time of work. He did not specify the number of employees who will be affected.
Workers air their concerns
Pascaline Nyiranshuti who has worked as cleaner for over eight years is concerned that the development could mean a loss of jobs for some of them.
"I have two children and we all depend on the income from this job. Therefore, when those machines come, I and many others will be unemployed and will bear the brunt.”
Nyiranshuti’s wary is echoed by others like Venera Kampire who says that the cleaning job is the source of livelihood for her and her family. She is the sole breadwinner in her family.
Mvuyekure said that cleaner who uses a machine cleans an area that can be handled by four people.
Based on this statistic, Royal Cleaning Ltd, can lay off up to 160 workers and remain more efficient.
"We haven’t yet laid-off employees. But we are planning to do so before the end of this year,” he said.
According to the 2019 employment outlook for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), over the next 15-20 years 14 per cent of existing jobs could disappear as a result of automation while another 32 per cent are likely to change radically as individual tasks are automated.
City officials respond
Nadine Umutoni Gatsinzi, the City of Kigali Vice Mayor in charge of Socio-economic Affairs, told The New Times that they haven’t received any signals of potential job losses.
"There are no such cases we’ve heard so far. But again these are not the only occupations available, there are other programmes that we put in place to help people get what to do, and not be victims of this technology,” she said.
She added: "If these risks are really there, we’ll sit down with them and look at a way of helping them access those programs.”
Gatsinzi explained that use of blowers, which is currently limited to roads linking districts, will be rolled out to other streets in the city.
What experts say
Dr Canisius Bihira, an Economist, says that concerns of unemployment should be addressed by proper project analysis that would offer employment to many people.
"There are some jobs whose extinction is not a surprise whether now or in days to come. What should be done by the private sector and authorities is to consult experts when there are about to start projects so as to avoid mismatches and be able to provide employment to as many people as possible.”
Bihira highlighted some buildings that are now idle without or with very few tenants as an example of poor planning practices.
editor@newtimesrwanda.com