Waste collection backlog increases to 76 communities in St James

WESTERN BUREAU:

THE NATIONAL Solid Waste Management Authority’s (NSWMA) Western Parks and Markets Waste Management Limited (WPM) continues to face an uphill battle with waste collection across St James, with the parish having a collection backlog in 76 districts for the month of September, up from 42 in August.

While presenting the WPM’s report at last Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC), Mark Jones, the WPM’s public-cleansing manager, noted that the current state of garbage collection in the parish is leading residents to improperly dispose of their waste as the refuse continues to pile up.

“For the month of September, the WPM continues to experience backlog in a number of districts in St James, and the main reason for this is owing to the resource constraints that the company has been facing,” said Jones.

“The WPM notes that where the waste collection is inconsistent, people choose to burn or dump their waste in nearby drains or rivers. Both residential and commercial customers use improper disposal practices such as refusing to bag their waste and creating illegal dump sites,” Jones added.

“Both the government vehicles and supplementary vehicles are not sufficient to clean the 334 districts in the parish,” he noted. “Six government units and five supplementary units worked in the parish on average during the period.”

St James has had a recurring poor track record of garbage collection and disposal, compounded by numerous reports of rat infestation due to improper disposal of food waste along the roadside and in drains.

The combined 11 trucks used by the WPM for waste collection during September is the same number as those used in August and remains less than the ideal 20 trucks that would be needed to execute the NSWMA’s waste-collection mandate.

Concerning the number of available garbage trucks to service St James, Jones said that the WPM is slated to receive 10 of the 50 new garbage trucks that had previously been announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness in July and that are expected to arrive in Jamaica soon.

“We have also been on a recruitment drive for drivers and sidemen, and so far, we have on staff 18 drivers and approximately 15 new sidemen hired,” said Jones.

But that announcement was not enough to pacify Councillor Michael Troupe, the StJMC’s outspoken councillor for the Granville division, who complained that the garbage pile-ups in some communities within his division are attracting unwanted pests.

“There is supposed to be a plan to utilise what you have now to ensure that certain areas are clean. My division collects all the garbage from Westmoreland and Trelawny into Granville, and when you pass through Granville Square, at least keep the square clean. Also, in the Pitfour area, it is just rats and dogs taking over the garbage,” Troupe argued.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com