New pledge to clear Kingston garbage mess
Published:Wednesday | March 9, 2022 | 12:13 AM
The Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) has passed a resolution to increase garbage collection to ease public-health concerns and prevent the potential outbreak of an epidemic.
The resolution was moved by councillor of the Vineyard Town division, Andrew Swaby.
Swaby, along with Neville Wright, councillor of the Trench Town division who seconded the resolution, said that the KSAMC has been aware of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) failure to make scheduled garbage collections.
The upshot, the councillors said, has been an “unsightly” pile-up of garbage across the Corporate Area, causing some residents to either burn refuse or dump it in gullies.
“The continued presence of garbage does attract flies, mosquitoes, and rats, and these alternative practices may themselves cause further adverse effects such as smoke pollution and flooding from debris and gullies,” the People’s National Party councillors argued.
“The KSAMC, in discharging its obligation to the residents of the municipality, must take the NSWMA to task and ensure that garbage collection is carried out on schedule to prevent an outbreak of diseases, unpleasant odours, or pest and rodent infestation,” the resolution read.
Councillor for the Papine division, Venesha Phillips, who supported the resolution, said the matter of garbage collection has been discussed ad nauseam.
“I would have wanted to see a different kind of intervention, but nonetheless, I believe that anything that will improve the aesthetics and the healthy practices of our nation by the proper containment and disposal and collection of our garbage is not something that I would discount,” the Papine councillor said.
Phillips also used the opportunity to appeal to Jamaicans to practise better garbage disposal habits.
“We have failings in our system, but it is equally important that we try to reinculcate the kind of value system in our people, that good practices where disposal is concerned is also pivotal to the process,” she said.
Councillor for the Chancery Hall division, Duane Smith, who voted against the resolution, said it was unnecessary, as Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie recently acknowledged the issue and has rolled out a plan, including the procurement of 50 garbage trucks.