NSWMA to clear city of garbage by weekend

BY CLAUDIENNE EDWARDS Observer writer edwardsc@jamaicaobserver.com

Thursday, February 16, 2012

THE National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) says the city of Kingston should be cleared of piles of garbage by this weekend and has promised full restoration of normal collection schedules by Monday.

The promise came yesterday, a day after Mayor of Kingston Lee Clarke warned that the Corporate Area could be on the verge of an epidemic if garbage that has been piling up since December was not addressed urgently.

In a release yesterday, the NSWMA attributed the backlog of solid waste to several factors, including the unavailability of trucks and last week's massive fire at the Riverton City Landfill.

"Since the latter part of December, the authority has been experiencing collection challenges in some sections of the Corporate Area. Some of the affected communities are Armour Heights, Old Stony Hill Road Community, Boone Hall, Shorebourne Heights, Meadowbrook, Jackson Town, Ackee Walk, Kintyre, Sandy Park, sections of August Town, sections of Waterhouse, Whitfield Town, East and West Kirkland Heights," the NSWMA explained.

"This is due mainly as a result of the unavailability of units and was further compounded by the fact that several units were used to assist with fire-fighting initiatives at the Riverton Disposal Site between the period February 6-11. The fire on the disposal site also impacted on the turnaround time of collection units," the NSWMA added.

At Tuesday's council meeting of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation, Clarke called on Local Government Minister Noel Arscott to address the situation with some urgency.

"The gullies are filled with garbage, the streets are filled with garbage, residences and businessplaces are being swamped with garbage, and this is feeding a growth in the rodent population. In the meantime, many persons have been relying on burning the waste, but this is creating an environmental problem," the mayor said.

Clarke said that, in some quarters, the situation was attributed to the change of government and the "house cleaning" which had followed.

"I have no explanation of what is causing the problem, but I am very concerned about the effect," he said.

"We can't have an essential agency like the National Solid Waste Management Authority spending two months to get its house back in order after a general election, while the city's solid waste disposal problems are intensifying," Clarke said.

The mayor was also critical of Arscott's comments about the fire at the landfill. He said that a quick response system needed to be put in place to contain the fires and restrict the danger to the health of citizens.

"It is not good enough for the minister to say that landfill fires occur all over the world and we have to live with it. Most countries have an emergency response system, and most countries regulate the waste that is dumped at the landfills, so they know what kinds of dangerous gases are produced," he argued.

Meantime, the NSWMA has apologised to those affected by the delay.