Residents urged to help keep Retirement landfill clear of dump fires

WESTERN BUREAU:

With clear skies once again becoming the norm in the communities neighbouring St James’ Retirement dumping facility, executive director of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) Audley Gordon is calling on residents to assist in its maintenance.

Gordon, who was speaking on the sidelines of a recent Operation SWEEP exercise in St James, pointed out that the agency has not recorded a fire at the Retirement landfill in approximately one year.

“We are working assiduously to make sure that we keep all the smoke hazard that could arise from our disposal facility under control. We are happy that we are running several months now, nearly a year, without any disturbance. We want to keep it that way.”

Prior to this, it was almost expected that the landfill in Retirement, which is utilised as the main disposal site for waste from across the region, would record at least three major dump fires each year.

The executive director had always maintained that the facility was being tampered with by arsonists, however, he shared that it wasn’t until arrests were made last year that this theory was proven.

The last recorded fire at the site was in January 2023.

At the same time, Gordon is calling on residents to play their part in ensuring that the facility remains unlit, as fires at a dump site not only affect residents but require additional manpower and resources from the solid waste authority.

“You can help us. There are people, and we have arrested people already, so we know what we are saying, who give us problems from time to time. Please don’t. It serves none of us any good to light any disposal facility,” the executive director said.

“We just ask for that partnership.”

“We breathe the same air. When you disturb it, all of us are affected, including you, your parents, your children, and your friends.”

STRATEGIC INITIATIVE

Meanwhile, Gordon is also urging that due diligence be placed on practising proper garbage disposal, as the solid waste team works to eradicate mini dump sites across the island.

“We cannot continue to just dump at will, whenever we feel. We must make proper arrangements to remove whatever solid waste we generate.”

He further stressed the importance of residents taking the initiative to properly rid their communities of waste, especially old furniture and appliances that may harbour rodents and other pests.

“If you have an old fridge or mattress, it is better for you to call us at the NSWMA. Let us try and help you to remove it.”

“Let us see how we can use up the likkle pickup man in the community or the likkle truck man. It might cost you a likkle small change to get it from your house to the disposal site, but consider the major investment that you would have been making in the environment, in the security of your community,” the executive director pleaded.

Noting that the agency, too, has a part to play in the maintenance of a clean environment, Gordon shared that Operation SWEEP was designed to tackle areas where a region may fall short on resources. The SWEEP team was called into St James to clear 23 loads of backlog and, after two days of work across the parish, they were able to cut that number down to six.

“SWEEP is a specialised team of drivers and sanitation workers that operate out of my Kingston office, and it is just a strategic initiative that we’ve put in place to assist the regions when they find themselves in a bit of trouble. They move pretty much like a SWAT team,” he said.