Bogue Heights residents upset about dumping
Published:Tuesday | March 19, 2024 | 12:13 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
RESIDENTS OF Bogue Heights in St James are voicing disgruntlement at the issue of garbage and bulky waste material being dumped along the roadway near their community, which they say they have sought to get addressed without success for at least the past six years.
Sandra Estrada, vice-president of the Bogue Heights Citizens’ Association, said that the approximately 500 residents living in the area are upset at the apparent lack of response from the higher authorities to include the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC), the National Works Agency (NWA), and the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), despite repeated pleas for the situation to be resolved.
“This was the road you would use to go west before the Bogue highway was built. There are no houses on it, but it’s a good road, and we use it to get back and forth, and the community uses it for pedestrians and for jogging and exercising,” said Estrada.
“Because there are no houses there and the grass is overgrown, people are throwing garbage there, and appliances, and it is in the community, so it is really a hazard. The folks that lived here before me said that it is commonplace,” Estrada added. “We’ve been writing to the parish council (StJMC) since last year June, and last November I wrote to the NWA because we were told the road belongs to NWA, and there was no response.”
The Gleaner was shown piles of waste strewn along the roadway in question, including in the vicinity of a clear and obvious no-dumping sign which had previously been erected by the StJMC.
According to the residents, various types of waste to include plastic bottles, boxes of household refuse, old metallic appliances, and construction materials are frequently dumped along the road, which used to serve as the main roadway prior to the creation of the present highway leading out of Montego Bay.
Anthony Scott, a returning resident who has lived in Bogue Heights for roughly six years, noted that in addition to the illicit dumping problem, the area needs regular de-bushing work to keep the location from becoming overgrown.
“Unscrupulous people use it as an area to dump materials that they no longer use, or they just dump their garbage, old fridges, old stoves, as a means of getting rid of their garbage. We’re tired of just reporting it to the authorities, because clearly nothing of any major impact is being done. I’ve been living in Bogue Heights for six years, and it’s been a problem from before my time,” the clearly frustrated Scott declared.
DE-BUSHING NEEDED
“We have put forward that the area needs to be cut on a regular basis, just like how they cut the front part of the road on the highway ... we’re literally adjoining the road, so they will cut three to four feet on the highway and leave the other six feet which goes on to the old road uncut, which to me doesn’t make any sense at all. We want the authorities to put something in place, because it cannot be that you have a road that you have pretty much abandoned,” Scott continued.
When contacted, the NWA’s western regional community relations officer Janel Ricketts stated briefly that the road and any de-bushing work to be done there is, in fact, the responsibility of the StJMC, while the issue of waste collection is the NSWMA’s purview.
“That roadway should be a parish council road; it does not fall on the NWA domain. The dumping would be a matter for the NSWMA, because that is illicit dumping, we don’t have any control over that aspect of it,” said Ricketts.
But Dwight Crawford, the deputy mayor of Montego Bay and the councillor for the Spring Garden division where Bogue Heights is located, disputed that declaration from the NWA, saying that entity is responsible for the road in question.
“That road that we’re speaking of, the old highway, to my knowledge, it is still the NWA’s road. But as much as I can as councillor, I try to assist by cleaning up that area, but that road is actually an NWA road. I would love to know when it was turned over to the StJMC ... I have been advised otherwise by Mr Saad Campbell [the superintendent of the StJMC’s Roads and Works Department] up to as recent as today [Monday],” said Crawford.
Crawford added that the residents’ complaint is a clear example of St James’ perpetual struggle with improper waste disposal, and that discussions will be held with various heads of agencies, including the NSWMA, as the StJMC forms committees for various roles in the parish.
“What I have found is that most of the persons that are actually doing the dumping of the material are sometimes not even persons from the community. They are actually sometimes truckmen that are contracted to dispose of waste from construction sites and homes within the area, and after being paid their $20,000 or $25,000 to do the job, rather than take it all the way up to the dumpsite that is up by Retirement to dispose of it, they just go right to the back of the community or some lonely space and just dispose of it there,” said Crawford. “We put in signs there, but persons are just nasty,” said Crawford.
SHARP FOCUS
“Under the leadership of the mayor, Richard Vernon, it is something we will be putting sharp focus on, in bringing persons to bear through the intervention of the police and the NSWMA, as well to see how we can group together and bring them to bear in a way that it will discourage others who think about doing it, because it is a growing problem,” Crawford added.
“The council is currently undergoing our orientation exercises for councillors, which will lead into the orientation of committee chairs, which will then lead into the discussions with various agencies, which will include these discussions [about waste management].”
Over the years, concerns have risen in St James that illicit dumping of waste material has resulted in rat infestation and mosquito breeding in different communities across the parish.
Sections 46, 47, and 48 of the NSWMA Act of 2001 make it an offence for anyone to litter in a public place, litter in a private place without consent of the owner, or to break bottles in public places. Section 55.2 of the Act stipulates that failure to comply with the terms of any notice given to remove the litter within a stipulated time may be fined a maximum of $100,000.
Last month, Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie announced that a new information delivery initiative would soon be rolled out to teach Jamaicans the importance of proper garbage disposal, and that the islandwide move would require collaboration from residents and councillors alike.