Garbage pile-up breeds mosquito, rodent concerns
Published:Saturday | September 10, 2022 | 12:09 AMGareth Davis Sr/Gleaner Writer
Lorenzo Hume, the chief public health inspector for Portland, has said that the amount of uncollected garbage in several communities across the northeastern parish is now a source of major concern.
Making his contribution to the monthly sitting of the Portland Municipal Corporation on Thursday, Hume pointed out that the solid-waste issues continue to pose a risk and could increase mosquito-breeding sites and also a surge in the rodent population.
Several communities in Portland, including Breastworks, Norwich, Snow Hill, Boundbrook, Tom’s Hope, Anchovy Gardens, Kensington, Long Bay, and Drapers Heights have been grappling with uncollected garbage for prolonged periods.
Additionally, several streets, including Foreshore Road, Ranch Hill Road, Stony Hill Road, Spring Bank Road, and the commercial strip along William Street, in the parish capital, Port Antonio, are adversely affected.
Port Antonio Mayor Paul Thompson said that the garbage situation, especially in the eastern section of the parish, has got out of control as the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) does not have enough trucks to adequately collect waste on a regular basis. This has resulted in a significant increase in garbage pile-up over the past six to eight months.
“It is a situation that is affecting just about every community in East Portland,” said Thompson.
“There has been significant effort on the part of the NSWMA and also the member of parliament, Ann-Marie Vaz, to hire private truck operators to remove garbage. However, because waste has been left lying all over for a prolonged period, it is rather challenging,” the mayor added. “What is frightening is that people are also dumping dead animals in garbage receptacles and outside the residence of others.
“It is a situation where trucks go into a community and remove garbage, but by the time they move into another area, garbage starts to reappear in that first community as there are simply not enough trucks to handle the volume of garbage in the respective communities across the parish,” Thompson said.
The garbage collection crisis has been affecting several communities islandwide for the past several months.
The NSWMA is hoping that the situation will improve in November, when 50 new trucks it has purchased are scheduled to arrive in the island.