Another attempt to clean Kingston Harbour gets under way

Ocean Cleanup Project, a new initiative to rid the highly polluted Kingston Harbour of tons of solid waste and to prevent more from washing in from the gullies that empty into it, is now being embarked upon. The pilot project is a collaboration between the GraceKennedy Foundation, Ocean Cleanup (an NGO based in the Netherlands), and Clean Harbours Jamaica (CHJ) Limited.

“The project is supported by the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ), which has made its facilities at its Harbours Department available for the mooring and refuelling of the Ocean Cleanup’s Interceptor, a small, powered barge that collects the trash from the ocean. The project, which gives focus to ridding the ocean of plastic, aligns with the PAJ’s goal of ensuring a sustainable blue economy and the general protection of the environment,” the PAJ said in a release.

In light of this, there was a tour of the mouths of three of the gullies, Mountain View Gully, Franklyn Town Gully, and Barnes Gully, on Tuesday, March 23. A high level of pollution and environmental degradation was evident at these spots, which was strewn with plastic bottles, many of which were retrieved and stored in bags at a facility near the mouth of the Mountain View Gully.

Among those present were members of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation; Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Growth and Job Creation, Senator Matthew Samuda; Central Kingston Member of Parliament Donovan Williams; CEO of the GraceKennedy Foundation, Carolina Mahfood; and Managing Director at CHJ Limited, Michael McCarthy; Kimberley Stiff of the PAJ; and Dr Parris Lyew-Ayee Jr of Mona GeoInformatics Institute.

OBNOXIOUS ODOUR

In addressing the gathering at the mouth of Barnes Gully amid an overwhelmingly obnoxious odour, Minister Samuda said it was the first opportunity for him to review the work that has been done. “I know we have a waste collection problem. That is impatient of debate, and you would have seen the result of that problem. So what we need to do is to stop the waste from getting into our harbour if we are to truly break the back of this problem,” he said.

Enclosed by the Palisadoes spit, Kingston Harbour is said to be the seventh largest in the world. Whatever happens within is overseen and controlled by the PAJ. However, the PAJ has been challenged over the years, unable to effectively control the vast amount of waste that is emitted into the harbour daily.

When quizzed about the timing, since the problem has been existing for a very long time, Minister Samuda said it is never a wrong time to do something right. He concluded by saying, “It is a massive problem, and we are not going to underestimate what is going to be required. But what the public should be happy about is that we have started, so I will leave it there.”

Williams, through whose constituency three of the gullies run, was quick off the bat when he admitted that “we have a waste disposal issue” and a social problem. To this he said, “In addition to the efforts of these stakeholders, our people need to be resocialised into taking care of their waste, because, at the end of the day, we can do so much and no more. However, we are starting because we have to set an example.”

Mahfood is also big on public education. The GraceKennedy Foundation will reach out to the youth through school activities and homeschooling platforms, as well as through local youth organisations. To engage these communities, the GraceKennedy Foundation will align with community leaders who are familiar with its work. “Part of the project is about community sensitisation and outreach to business community, because I believe it is a public-private partnership … . It can’t be all on the Government,” Mahfood told The Gleaner.

Clean Harbour Jamaica Ltd is on the same page with the GraceKennedy Foundation, and its managing director said this large and collaborative initiative, which he loves, needs much community involvement. One of their functions is to retrieve, sort, package and recycle solid waste, but their core function “is the dynamic and systematic clean-up and restoration of natural harbours, gullies and streams”. Their mission is to provide cleaner oceans across the island of Jamaica and have targeted the Kingston Harbour as a pilot project.

Other stakeholders in the initiative include the Urban Development Corporation, National Environment and Planning Agency, National Solid Waste Management Authority, National Land Agency, and the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation.

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