Bus park the Riverton of Spanish Town - Operators blame public for treating facility as dump
Published:Wednesday | December 18, 2019 | 12:36 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
A section of the Spanish Town bus park in St Catherine has been transformed into a mini version of the Riverton dump as the authorities are left to grapple with a garbage collection and disposal nightmare that has morphed into an unsightly health hazard.
When The Gleaner visited the facility yesterday, Arlene Hyde, one of four cleaners tasked with keeping the bus park clean, was busy trying to make sense of the mound as an unpleasant stench wafted through the air. She said the public wasn’t blameless in the messy disaster.
“Well, I am doing my job. I have to clean it, even though people take their garbage from where they are coming from and throw over here. The management put up signs, but they are still doing it. No care how we tell dem, they cuss and dump it all about and tell you say if a nuh garbage place,” Hyde said.
Taxis and buses were seen still picking up and offloading passengers as commuters went about their usual business in spite of the mess.
Several persons told our news team that they last saw a garbage truck empty the skip at the facility last week Monday.
COLLECTION HOLD-UP
Property supervisor William Millwood also told The Gleaner that the regular pick-up was not done on schedule.
“The garbage collector, when they go to the landfill, it takes up to a day to let off what they pick up. That is the hold-up. Apart from that, they normally pick up three times per week,” said Millwood as he anticipated that the garbage would be collected by late yesterday evening.
Millwood also corroborated Hyde’s account of the public dumping garbage inside the bus park.
“The market people at nights, most persons don’t have a skip, and they believe it’s our responsibility. These people are different, and over time, we hope to change that. I’m doing my best,” Millwood insisted.
He pointed out that while they are happy that over the past year there has been no killings or shootings in the bus park, garbage disposal was now a major concern. He is hoping the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) will do more to assist surrounding communities with garbage collection.
Contacted yesterday, NSWMA Executive Director Audley Gordon told The Gleaner that he could not speak to the specifics of the situation, but has ordered an investigation.
“With Spanish Town, we have pretty much kept schedule. September, October and November, we had rain challenge, but we have since collected the backlog that was created,” Gordon said.
Responding to claims of the public turning the bus park into a dump, Gordon said: “I cannot say no, because when they see garbage [already piling up], they think they can throw it there. Spanish Town is a densely populated area, and if it was the case, the entire bus park would be buried under garbage. In Spanish Town, we are not doing too badly and, of course, we can improve.”
Last month, the NSWMA pleaded for Jamaicans to exercise patience as it tries to address the pile-up of garbage in sections of the island, particularly in Kingston, St Andrew, and St Catherine, blaming the backlog on a multiplicity of issues. Chief among them were crime; rain-soaked dirt roads at landfills, particularly at Riverton; traffic jams; and the non-containerisation of garbage by residents.