Low turnout, concerns about garbage collection highlight Lucea beach clean-up

About 40 volunteers on Saturday morning cleaned up garbage and debris along Fisherman's Beach in Lucea, Hanover, amid concerns about a shortage of manpower and whether the mounds of litter gathered would be removed from the site.

With some 20 locations within Hanover registered with the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) for attention on International Coastal Clean-up Day, volunteers could be seen in several areas trying to properly package plastics for pickup by the designated collectors.

The main project in the parish was the Fisherman's beach in the parish capital, which saw volunteers from the Grand Palladium Hotel, in Point, Hanover, the fishermen who work from that beach, and the Parish Development Committee (PDC) participating.

The Lucea Fisherman's Beach was identified for attention, as it is in a deplorable state, strewn with bamboo and various plastic containers and bottles, and has been labelled a health hazard by the Hanover health authorities in the past.

The bamboo was washed into that area as a result of recent flooding in the town of Lucea, caused by the overflow of the Riley River.

In an interview with The Gleaner, coordinator of the clean-up effort for that beach area, president of the PDC, Petra Vernon-Foster, pointed out that the fisherfolk who utilise the beach, have been very cooperative, in helping in the effort to clean the area.

She said they were in charge of collecting all the bamboo on the beach and putting them in piles, while the other volunteers attend to all the plastic items on the beach.

Vernon-Foster said that she was saddened, however, as the task at the Lucea Fisherman's Beach is a mammoth one which needs a lot of manpower, and promises made by other stakeholders within the town to assist with mobilising volunteers have come to naught.

“We could do with a lot more volunteers as the bamboo that wash down from the Riley River as a result of the flooding of the town, most of it is on the beach, so we have also arranged with the Western Parks and Markets to come and remove the garbage,” she stated.

Meanwhile, some of the fisherfolk expressed scepticism about whether the pile of garbage, especially the bamboo, will be removed.

They say they have tried to help in the past by piling up the bamboo and asking for assistance from the relevant agency to remove it, but that assistance did not come.

“We had to light it in the past to get rid of some of it,” one fisherman told The Gleaner.

Beach areas within the parish which were cleared of plastics and other garbage include, the Lucea Harbour, Watson Taylor Park Beach, the beach at the Lucea Examination Depot, Old Steamer Beach, Sawyers Beach and Bloody Bay Beach.

- Bryan Miller

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