Residents of Tivoli Gardens have been faced with the challenge of ridding their community of maggots. A huge pile of garbage is home to the insects that are making trails to the properties of the residents. Some blame the infestation on the improper packaging of the waste.

Tivoli residents hoard salt to fight maggots

29 Apr 2022/Andre Williams

 

RESIDENTS IN Tivoli Gardens are stocking up on salt. However, it is not for cooking.

The West Kingston-based community is battling a surge in the maggot population in some areas as uncollected garbage piles up.

When The Gleaner visited the area yesterday, garbage was strewn at a disposal site along Bustamante Highway, one of the main corridors in the community.

“A regular thing now. Every minute, garbage pile up. A salt mi affi throw deh so cross way so dem (maggot) nuh pass. Because, yuh know, as dem crawl in a di salt, dem dead,” one shopkeeper said. “But dem fat like!”

Another resident said the garbage collection issues have been a major headache.

“One day last week, the garbage truck come. If dem tek so long fi come, you a go have the spread same way. Some a dem (residents) send the pickney dem with the rubbish. The pickney dem nuh bother go up there (designated disposal area). Dem just drop it right deh so. All some of the big people do it too,” another resident told The Gleaner.

“All di people dem from way down in a Garden, a ya suh dem dump. Right here so a dem quarters. ... It nah go stop.The maggot dem (trails) all a bend corner, so yuh must know how far dem a go,” a woman said.

National SolidWaste Management Authority ( NSWMA) Executive Director Audley Gordon has acknowledged the agency trying to address a backlog in garbage collection in many areas across the island, admitting that, in far too many instances, they have missed two collections.

“Where we not late, we are into backlog in quite a number of areas. There is indeed a very chronic shortage of trucks. If we don’t have trucks, we are dead into the water. Our business relies heavily on trucks,” he told The Gleaner yesterday.

The NSWMA head said that, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke had announced that 100 new trucks were approved for purchase for the state agency. But, two years later, they have not yet landed in the island.

“The fact that we didn’t get the trucks didn’t mean that the garbage stopped generating. There is a commitment in this year’s Budget to get 50 trucks, which they are procuring,” he added.

But he does not foresee those units arriving before late November or December, if everything goes according to plan.

Gordon is asking the residents to be patient and to properly containerise their garbage, a practice the residents admitted very few persons adhered to.

“You see that maggot situation? You will not find that at my house. No matter how late the garbage truck take to come, you will not find that because I properly package my garbage,” Gordon told The Gleaner, noting that containerising was a winwin for collectors and residents, as it reduces health risks.

“... I know that no week passes and a truck doesn’t go into Tivoli Gardens. Sometimes more than once per week. The truth is, areas like South St Andrew, West Kingston, Central Kingston, those densely populated areas, you really can’t go there often enough. You clean the area 9 o’clock and, by 9:30, 10 o’clock, it’s as if yuh never do anything there,” Gordon said.

The NSWMA boss is also encouraging people to practise composting, saying that 67 per cent of what the agency collects is compostable.

Tivoli Gardens Division Councillor Donovan Samuels told The Gleaner yesterday that he was in meetings and could not speak on the issue.

 

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