Dengue alert! - NEPM to clean up St Ann this weekend
Published:Friday | January 11, 2019 | 12:00 AMCarl Gilchrist/Gleaner Writer
ST ANN'S BAY, St Ann:
Residents in the Charles Town, Windsor Heights, and St Ann's Bay areas in St Ann are being urged to prepare bulky waste items, such as old refrigerators, stoves, tyres and other items, that may be breeding sites for mosquitoes for collection by North Eastern Parks and Markets (NEPM) Waste Management Limited today and tomorrow.
The effort is the continuation of a partnership between the National Solid Waste Management Authority and the Ministry of Health's source-reduction project to eliminate mosquito-breeding sites, as explained by Tracy Fakhourie, regional operations manager at NEPM.
"We're urging the residents, look around your yard, anywhere that you may have bulky waste. Anything that can become a breeding ground for mosquitoes, we want to assist you in getting rid of," Fakhourie told The Gleaner on Thursday as the team visited the Charles Town and Windsor Heights communities.
"We want to collect anything that may actually prove to be a breeding ground for mosquitoes as we're now trying to reduce the incidence of the dengue fever, which the island is being affected by presently."
The effort on Thursday revealed several potential breeding sites for mosquitoes, including a boat with stagnant water that was left on the roadside in Windsor Heights.
The operation began with a day of sensitisation on Tuesday and collections on Wednesday and Thursday. However, the operation was pushed back to the weekend as several premises where bulky waste could be seen from the road were empty as residents had gone to work.
"So that we have a greater impact and more persons are able to make use of the opportunity, we are going to suspend our operation, do some more sensitisation on Friday, and then Saturday and Sunday, we will do some collection, but mainly on Sunday," Fakhourie said.
After Charles Town and Windsor Heights, the team will head to St Ann's Bay to continue the exercise. The team will also visit the Runaway Bay area to target communities such as Salem and Mount Edgecombe.
A similar exercise is to be carried out in sections of St Mary and Portland, the regional manager said.