Leaders of rural St Andrew’s farming community yesterday complained that outsiders were dumping tons of garbage in their community and called on the authorities to arrest and fine the perpetrators.

“What we need is that the authorities lock-up these people and impose some heavy fines and report them in the Press, so that people will understand what can happen to them for dumping garbage on the road,” one representative told the Jamaica Agricultural Society’s (JAS’) St Andrew Association of Branch Societies (ABS) meeting at the JAS head office in downtown Kingston.

According to the angry farmers, trucks loaded with garbage were travelling into rural St Andrew and depositing the refuse in areas like Constitution Hill.

In addition, the ABS representatives said that National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) garbage trucks do not service rural St Andrew, and this has resulted in residents following the cue of the truckers and dumping garbage near gullies and drains and on the roads.

Parliament last November passed bills introducing fines of up to $1 million for major breaches of the National Solid Waste Management Authority Act. One such breach is the illegal dumping of garbage by trucks. Minor fines range from $2,000 to $10,000 and include a fine of $2,000 for throwing things like lunch boxes through the windows of vehicles. Perpetrators will be issued tickets similar to traffic tickets, but this is not expected to come into effect before next month.

Yesterday, JAS president Senator Norman Grant, who also represents the rural St Andrew farming community, said that there are persons driving trucks loaded with garbage into the area and dumping the refuse in the gullies.

“As a result of that, they create an environmental problem,” he said. “When there is heavy rain, the gullies are blocked, creating problems in both the rural and urban areas. So we are saying that the Government has to look out for those persons and bring the anti-litter laws to bear on them.

“We are calling on those persons, who know themselves, who continue to do this, to desist. We have no intention of allowing these people to deface the rural communities,”

Grant said that the JAS was calling on the NSWMA to pay more attention to these areas and to ensure that there is proper removal of garbage.

“If there is no structured way of removing the garbage from rural St Andrew, when the rains come it is going to be washed down into the sub-urban and urban areas and create more problems,” Grant warned.

He said that as part of its rural development programme, the JAS is looking at partnering with community organisations to start a clean-up programme to keep these areas clean and healthy.

balfordh@jamaicaobserver.com