WPM scolded for lack of data in St James littering prosecutions
Published:Thursday | July 21, 2022 | 12:07 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE NATIONAL Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) came in for scathing criticism during the monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC) for its failure to keep an accurate record of its efforts in prosecuting persons who illicitly dump garbage across the parish.
While providing his report to the StJMC, Mark Jones, the public cleansing manager for the NSWMA’s Western Parks and Markets (WPM) Waste Management Limited, admitted that he did not have at hand the number of offenders who were warned for prosecution.
“The enforcement team did patrol during the period (June) in search of breaches, and operations were conducted in Bogue Hill, Barrett Hall, Greenwood, Charles Gordon Market, Anchovy, Catherine Hall, and various commercial entities on Barnett Street and River Bay Road. But as for the results of the enforcement, I do not have that exact number,” said Jones.
That confession did not go over well with outspoken government Senator Charles Sinclair, the StJMC’s councillor for the Montego Bay North East Division, who immediately took Jones to task for not being prepared with accurate figures ahead of the meeting.
“You outline enforcement activities in response to illegal activities. Can you tell us what was the response of the enforcement activities? Did it lead to identification of anyone who may have caused the concern? If I came here to report that my enforcement team went out to do enforcement, there is a cost to everything, and I would expect that there would be something there,” Sinclair scolded Jones.
“It sounds good that you went out there and had enforcement, but what was the result? You cannot just tell me you had enforcement and yet there is nothing there; you must become solution-oriented,” Sinclair added.
In response, Jones promised that he would request that the NSWMA’s monthly reports include a detailed summary of all enforcement action taken against littering offenders.
POOR WASTE MANAGEMENT
The issue of enforcement action against litterbugs in St James has been mentioned in previous sittings of the StJMC, due to the parish’s history of poor waste management, and reports of illicit disposal practices. That problem has been compounded by numerous reports of rat infestation, due to the improper disposal of food waste.
Fines range from $2,000 for littering in any public space to $5,000 for littering on any premises owned by another person without the owner’s permission.
During the previous meeting of the StJMC in June, in response to a call for the authorities to publish the identities of persons who illegally dispose of their waste, the WPM’s regional operations manager Dramaine Jones said that his organisation was examining the legality of that idea before implementing it.
In the meantime, it was disclosed during Thursday’s meeting, that the WPM had a garbage collection backlog in 62 communities in St James, up from 53 communities in May. Additionally, six government-appointed garbage collection units and five supplementary units were used for waste collection across the parish in June.
“Despite its best effort, WPM continues to experience backlog in a number of districts in the parish. The main reason for this is as a result of resource constraints, and supplementary units have been quite inefficient,” Jones told the meeting. “The challenge remains the same, with poor disposal practices demonstrated by both domestic and commercial customers.”