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54 per-cent reduction in backlog of solid waste disposal complaints

Published:Saturday | September 2, 2023 | 12:06 AM
Prime Minister Andrew Holness (right), meets the drivers of the new garbage trucks that was deployed by the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) during a Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, NSWMA hand over ceremony last year.
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Prime Minister Andrew Holness (right), meets the drivers of the new garbage trucks that was deployed by the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) during a Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, NSWMA hand over ceremony last year.

There has been a 54 per cent reduction in the backlog of solid waste disposal complaints since the Government’s acquisition of 50 garbage trucks which were deployed across the island last year.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness made the announcement while addressing a town hall meeting on housing and land at Harmony Beach Park in Montego Bay, St James, on Thursday.

Holness said that, prior to the trucks being acquired, the backlog of complaints between March and November 2022 totalled 1,896.

“Since we got the trucks [in December 2022], about six months or more after, the backlog [of] complaints [has] gone down to 873. In other words, we have cut those complaints by 1,023, because more persons are benefitting from a better system,” he added.

He said the Government intends to further reduce the backlogs islandwide, and advised that 50 additional compactors are being procured “for the people who are still having problems with garbage collection”.

“What I’m saying to you, my brothers and sisters, [is] there is change happening before your very eyes. It is happening. This Government has started the process of recovering Jamaica … recovering to make us stronger and recovering Jamaica better than it was before,” the prime minister said.