People who start fires at Retirement dump are ‘terrorists’, says Sinclair

WESTERN BUREAU:

Government Senator Charles Sinclair, the councillor for the Montego Bay North East division in the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC), has described the individuals responsible for last month’s fire at the Retirement landfill in the parish, which resulted in several days of a smoke nuisance, as ‘terrorists’.

Addressing the StJMC’s monthly meeting on Thursday, Sinclair suggested that heavy sanctions should be placed on unauthorised people who enter the landfill or other premises operated by the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA).

“This fire in December, which the NSWMA said it suspected was arson, was made to create mischief and inconvenience at a time when you have a lot of people coming into the island. I view the December lighting of the disposal site as being terrorism, as it is done to have a significant impact upon residents and our visitors to the island, and that is a terrorist activity,” the tough-talking Sinclair told the meeting.

“The National Solid Waste Management Act needs to be amended, to make any unauthorised person entering the disposal site to be sanctioned with some serious penalties, whether it is in the form of monetary fines that are significant, or imprisonment. It is a public-health hazard that is created when you light a disposal site, and it is a public-health hazard that spreads miles out of St James and into the parish of Hanover, plus it takes up the resources of the NSWMA and of the fire brigade,” Sinclair added.

He was responding to the presentation of St James’ monthly waste management report, during which Mark Jones, the public cleansing manager for the NSWMA’s Western Parks and Markets, acknowledged that arson was the suspected cause of the fire at the Retirement landfill on December 18.

“This serious fire erupted at the Retirement disposal site, and the Jamaica Fire Brigade was subsequently notified and three units were dispatched to the site. The fire is highly suspected to be the work of arsonists based on the hard-to-reach area of the site where it started and the pace of its spread initially, and based on this the matter has been reported to the Jamaica Constabulary Force for further investigation,” said Jones.

The Retirement dump has been the site of several fires over the years, with the resulting smoke frequently affecting residents in communities in and around Montego Bay, including Retirement, Tucker, Pitfour, Granville, Bogue Village, and Westgate Hills.

One month prior to the December blaze, Marlene Malahoo Forte, the Member of Parliament for West Central St James where Retirement is located, told the House of Representatives that plans were advanced to identify a suitable relocation site for the landfill. That declaration was made several months after councillors at the StJMC demanded in April that the issues at the dump should be quickly resolved.

In the meantime, Montego Bay Mayor Leeroy Williams, who chairs the StJMC, told Thursday’s meeting that he would support any motion that should be made for severe sanctions against people who enter the NSWMA’s property without proper authorisation.

“I support you in terms of serious sanctions on persons who are unauthorised and go on a disposal site. We definitely will have to go to the Ministry of Local Government for them to address this,” said Williams.