Hanover councillors demand fresh fleet to handle garbage pile-up
Published:Wednesday | October 19, 2022 | 12:05 AMBryan Miller/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Councillors in the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC) have made a request for no less than three of the 50 new garbage trucks that have been ordered for the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) to be sent to service the parish when they arrive.
The call follows increased complaints from residents about garbage pile-up across the parish that were detailed in a report from president of the Hanover Parish Development Committee (HPDC) Petra Vernon-Foster to the Hanover Municipal Council. She said she had been getting complaints on the matter from several areas across the parish.
The NSWMA had promised that the situation would change if and when it received a new fleet of trucks.
Initially, the country was told that 100 new trucks had been ordered for the NSWMA, but subsequently, an official report was that the order was cut to 50 trucks as some of the budgeted amount to purchase the trucks was used in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The 50 trucks that have been ordered are expected to arrive by the end of October.
But Deputy Mayor of Lucea and councillor for the Sandy Bay Division in the HMC Andria Dehaney-Grant is insistent that if fewer than three of the 50 new trucks are sent to Hanover, it would not make any difference.
“And we do not want to see any used truck from Kingston being sent to Hanover when the new trucks arrive. We want at least three of the new trucks, no used ones,” Dehaney-Grant emphasised.
Mayor of Lucea Sheridan Samuels further expressed curiosity about the amount of money that was granted for the removal of garbage during the Jamaica 60 celebrations, arguing that he had not seen value for money in Hanover.
“I must ask the question. In the Jamaica 60 celebrations we understand that there were certain amounts of monies that were allocated to NSWMA to remove the backlog of these garbage. We still have the same situation, and those are not little bit of money. It is a whole lot of money that was allocated,” he noted.
“What is it that the NSWMA is doing about the garbage situation?” he asked. He says the problem in Hanover remains and stretches islandwide.
The NSWMA report tabled in the meeting showed that at the end of September, there was a backlog of uncollected garbage in 16 districts in Eastern Hanover and 29 districts in Western Hanover, up from 34 districts in total as at the end of August.
Public Cleansing Officer at Western Parks and Markets (WPM)/NSWMA Rosemarie Erskine, who was present at the meeting, could not defend her agency against the charges of inefficiency being levelled against it but argued that the members of staff were doing their best with the equipment with which they had to work. She emphasised that the situation would improve when the new trucks arrived.
Erskine could only promise to communicate the request to her seniors within the NSWMA, noting that the (final) decision did not rest with her.