Trash will be collected five days a week in an effort to reduce overtime pay.Public Works Minister Derrick Burgess announced the move one of many cost-cutting measures revealed in Premier Paula Cox’s 201½012 Budget.Mr Burgess said changing from a four-day to a five-day collection schedule would reduce operating costs and still enable collection of the estimated 440 tons of solid waste produced every week.“Basically, we have divided the Island into 24 geographical areas, 12 in the east and 12 in the west,” he explained yesterday.“What we do now is we service 12 areas a day on Monday and Tuesday, and then do it again on Thursday and Friday. What we have found is that there is a lot of overtime.“What we will be doing is, perhaps, servicing ten areas for four days, and eight on the fifth. Collection will still be twice a week everywhere, but we will reduce, if not completely remove, the need for overtime.”Road repaving projects are to be carried out in the summer months instead of year round unless the situation is urgent.The Deputy Premier described it as another cost-cutting measure, explaining that inclement weather in the winter months made work slower to complete and therefore more expensive.He said the Ministry was also working to dispose of 600 containers of asbestos, which have been stored at Southside and the Government quarry for the last 30 years.“Last year, in June, we had a meeting with all of the local environmentalists and brought in specialists from overseas to discuss was of disposing of this asbestos,” he said.“We have a tentative agreement of how to and where to dispose it to. Shortly there will be a paper in the Cabinet to approve an environmental effects study.“Once that’s approved, we will continue to speak with local environmentalists and then there will be action.”Mr Burgess also outlined a Government plan to tackle water shortages, saying enhancements to the Tyne’s Bay Desalination Plant and an agreement with Watlington Waterworks will dramatically increase the available supply.“Presently we make about a million-and-a-half gallons a day. That is when we are at maximum strength. By April, that will increase by at least a half-a-million gallons per day,” he said.“Our staff in the water section are presently stretched, and so we have signed an agreement with Watlington Waterworks, in which they will take on a lot of responsibility for providing water to the West end.“Once that is complete, there will be an addition of 3 million gallons of water a day to the West end, so if we have another dry period like we did last year, it shouldn’t be as bad as far as us getting water.”Useful website: www.gov.bm.