Municipal reps, SPM move to address garbage crisis in Clarendon
Published:Thursday | June 9, 2022 | 12:06 AMOlivia Brown/Gleaner Writer
Additional garbage trucks have been deployed to ease Clarendon’s garbage crisis, according to Edward Muir, regional operations manager for Southern Parks and Markets (SPM) Waste Management Ltd, a subsidiary of the National Solid Waste Management Authority. Muir was speaking on Tuesday, moments ahead of a one-day clean-up exercise across the central parish.
“We intend to put (the) maximum units in Clarendon, because Clarendon is a growing population. We have areas such as Longville Park...every Sunday we send no less than five units [there], [and] we still have to go there another day,” Muir said in reference to the southeastern Clarendon community.
He added: “We need no less than 30 trucks to properly clean the region (Clarendon, Manchester and St Elizabeth), but we intend to use what we have in the best way possible to ease some of the burden off our Jamaican citizens.”
Muir cited a limited number of trucks and other resources as the main cause for the garbage pile-up, adding: “The shortage of trucks is part of the problem right across the region.”
Eleven garbage trucks and additional sweepers were deployed to the parish for the one-day activity.
Planned activities for the day also included school visits to sensitise students on garbage collection and storage. The targeted schools were Foga Road Infant, Denbigh Primary, Mineral Heights Primary, Glenmuir High, and May Pen High and Preparatory schools.
“It is important that we educate our students (on) how we properly contain garbage,” said Muir.
According to the SPM manager, while the entity can improve on its service, residents also have a part to play in ensuring a cleaner environment.
“What we’re asking the residents to do is to work with us... help us to containerise the garbage [to] alleviate some chronic illnesses like leptospirosis. When you containerise, it is a high possibility that if we don’t get to collect on scheduled time, that garbage will stay intact, so the unit can collect it whenever we get the chance,” he said.
According to Muir, the ‘Bag It’ and ‘Drum A Di Gate’ initiatives launched by SPM in the parish have seen positive results.
In aknowledging the parish’s garbage woes, May Pen Mayor Winston Maragh said: “We have a chronic backlog of garbage all over, so we intend to tackle some of it this morning (yesterday.) We will not be able to go everywhere, but I am really happy we are making a dent today.”
Stakeholders have been lamenting the backlog of garbage collection leading to rat infestation across the parish. Addressing a People’s National Party divisional conference in Frankfield last Wednesday, Scean Barnswell, councillor for the Hayes division, referenced a report from public health authorities at a recent meeting of the Clarendon Municipal Corporation. The report cited an increase in rat infestation across the parish. “Just last month, they said they have investigated four communities and they are seeing a 100 per cent increase of rat infestation, and we all know the disease that rat brings – leptospirosis,” said Barnswell at the meeting.
On Tuesday, concerns surrounding the rat-borne disease were put to Maragh. “The health department has not indicated any upsurge in any disease or anything of that nature, but this project today will help us to reduce any instance or incidents of any such health concerns,” Maragh told journalists outside the Denbigh Agricultural Showground, where the team from SPM gathered before embarking on the clean-up exercise.