THE garbage pile-up in Montego Bay and other sections of Western Jamaica is expected to be alleviated by this week’s dispatching of 10 trucks to Western Parks and Markets (WPM).

According to Alston Stewart, chairman of Metropolitan Parks and Markets, the trucks were leased and sent down to deal with the backlog while the existing fleet is serviced.

“It will give us a chance to repair the present stock that’s there that is (inoperable),” he told the Observer. “The initial period is for a month to get this cleanup going, and hopefully by then, we will have the regular fleet rehabilitated and back in service.”

The supply of trucks is a part of the Ministry of Local Government’s efforts to “arrange a supplementary clean-up effort for the Retirement watershed,” and have been dispatched to help deal with the mounds of uncollected garbage generated over the holiday season.

Over the past few weeks, WPM has had a difficult time keeping abreast of solid waste collection in the parishes of St James, Hanover, Trelawny and Westmoreland as several trucks in their already inadequate fleet were crippled by mechanical problems.

“We have several trucks that are down, one that was damaged beyond repair and others that just need to be serviced,” noted Stewart, whose MPM has overall responsibility for WPM.

“The fleet is somewhat old, and we’ll be upgrading it shortly with the addition of 20 new trucks nationally. Some will be assigned to western Jamaica as soon as the manufacturers deliver.”

He estimated that the trucks would be in the island within the next two and a half months, but could not say how many would be assigned to the western region.

“We are requesting the support of both the residential and commercial communities in bagging their solid waste as this will assist us in doing an effective clean-up exercise,” Stewart said in a press release. “Arrangements are being made to ensure that adequate capacity thereafter is in place to adequately deal with solid waste generated by the watershed.”