StJMC members want tougher action against illicit dumping
Published:Monday | March 14, 2022 | 12:05 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Several councillors at the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC) are calling for stronger action to be taken against persons who illicitly dump their garbage across the parish, which may be contributing to a significant increase in the local rodent population.
During last Thursday’s monthly meeting of the StJMC, the councillors voiced their concerns following a report from the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) that 29 communities in St James are backlogged in terms of waste collection, and seven garbage trucks are in need of repair.
Michael Troupe, StJMC’s councillor for the Granville division, said he recently saw rats, the control of which has been a long-standing issue in the western parish because of improper disposal of food refuse and other waste, running in the vicinity of a popular fast-food outlet in downtown Montego Bay.
“I do not know when last you physically walked in St James, but I walked in the vicinity of the KFC outlet, and I saw some rats that were racing against the cars. The cars stopped when they saw the rats, that is how big the rats were,” said Troupe. “The public health needs a state of emergency for rats, and I am not giving any joke, because it is time for action now.”
Dwight Crawford, StJMC’s councillor for the Spring Garden division, said that illicit dumping is reportedly taking place in a number of places which had been cleaned during the Christmas period, with building contractors allegedly among the guilty parties.
INCREASING
“All of the sites that were cleaned of illegal dumping during the Christmastime are dumping grounds and [these] are increasing. Just two weeks ago, at a football field at Bogue, some contractors doing construction work just carried their mess and dumped it in the middle of the football field,” Crawford complained.
“It is not even a question of putting up a sign to say ‘No dumping,’ as the only two places that dumping is allowed are in a garbage receptacle or at the waste facility up at the Retirement community. People are out of control with waste disposal in St James, and we spoke last week about engaging the police in a more serious way and putting a group together, so that we can slap some of these people with some serious punishment and fines,” Crawford added.
In response, Montego Bay Deputy Mayor Richard Vernon, who chaired the session, said that meetings have been held with St James’ chief public health inspector to create a technical working group, inclusive of the NSWMA, the municipal corporation, and other government agencies, to address the matter of proper sanitation.
St James’ track record of garbage disposal has been poor in the past decade. As the parish’s disaster coordinator, Tamoy Sinclair, admitted in 2016 that residents have not had good solid waste practices. At that time, the flooding of Montego Bay’s Fairview Shopping Centre during the passage of Tropical Storm Earl was cited as an example of improper garbage disposal, which resulted in the blocking of drains in the area.
Prior to that, in 2011, the Tourism Enhancement Fund distributed 5,000 litter bags to ground transport operators in the tourism sector and taxi operators in Montego Bay as part of a local anti-litter campaign. However, since then, there has been no indication that that initiative has been successful or has continued.