St James PC to recruit 40 to aid celan up and mosquito eradication exercise

WESTERN BUREAU:

THE ST James Parish Council will be employing 40 persons to assist with a mass clean-up exercise to be undertaken by the council to avert an escalation in the number of chikungunya cases in the parish.

Mayor of Montego Bay Glendon Harris told The Gleaner that the 40 persons would be trained to undertake a public- education programme, as well as to carry out other aspects of the programme, which were outlined during the parish council’s executive management meeting earlier this week.

Harris said the clean-up programme would be done on a phased basis as the National Solid Waste Management Authority is still reeling from a shortfall of resources.

“The National Solid Waste personnel – they do not have enough resources for us to do a general clean-up, so we might have to phase it across the parish and do the clean-up from that perspective,” said Harris.

Quizzed about the infrequency of fogging across the parish, Mayor Harris said it was an expensive exercise that would only achieve between 12 and 24 hours coverage to kill mosquitoes, arguing that residents must take responsibility to clean-up their environment.

HOUSEHOLDS & COMMUNITIES

“The reality is that the type of mosquito that carries the virus is usually the one that is bred in the household or in the immediate home environment – so it is a matter of the public education that will get the citizens to clean up their neighbourhood. So it does not make sense you go out there and clean the drains and other public places and the households and surroundings are breeding grounds,” Harris opined.

Questioned about funding for the programme, the mayor indicated that he would not divulge that information just yet, as he was awaiting approval from the Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Finance for the project.