MONTEGO BAY, St James – Michael Troupe, the People’s National Party (PNP) councillor for the Granville Division, yesterday launched a scathing attack on the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), arguing that its inability to adequately discharge its duties has resulted in the filthiness of this resort city.

“We must not be afraid to speak out; Montego Bay stinks; even my own division because the (National) Solid Waste Management Authority is not doing what they are suppose to do,” Troupe said.

He added that parishioners were being short-changed as a result of the lacklustre performance of the agency and called for action to be taken to remedy the situation.

” The taxpayers of St James are not getting value for money and drastic action must be taken,” said Councillor Troupe, as he addressed yesterday’s sitting of the St James Parish Council.

Arguing that the NSWMA regional office located in Montego Bay was being starved of much needed cash by its Kingston-based head office, Troupe said the local office was being operated by “remote control” from Kingston.

“How can you keep a city clean when the manager at the local office don’t even have the authority to buy a tyre or even a battery for a truck?” Troupe asked. Many of the workers, he added, were without the necessary tools to carry out their tasks.

“I firmly believe that some shake-up must take place in the organisation because it is full time for Montegonians to have a friendly and clean city,” Troupe later told the Observer.

Meanwhile, regional manager at the NSWMA, Percival Stewart, who was present at yesterday’s meeting, said the agency, despite its limited resources, had partnered with several agencies in an effort to fulfil its mandate.

He acknowledged, however, that more needs to be done and urged the citizens to play their part in keeping the resort town clean.

“.As we wash the street, particularly in Sam Sharpe Square, in less than one hour we see what we wash from it being newly deposited there, so it cannot be that the solid waste authority with its limited resources move along and do what we are mandated to do and then we have irresponsible citizens litter the streets again. We need to do something about that,” Stewart said.

-cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com