Prime Minister Bruce Golding and the Office of National Reconstruction (ONR), organisers of the two-day post-hurricane clean-up that got off the ground yesterday, are declaring day one of the national operation a success.

At the end of the first day yesterday, Golding, who had announced the project at his inauguration, said he was satisfied with the work that had been done and with the co-operation of the government agencies and private sector partners involved.

“The turnout has been good, bearing in mind this has been a continuing effort and bearing in mind that the work that is being done today is really equipment work,” he said.

ONR head and co-coordinator of the project, Kingsley Thomas, was equally pleased with the progress made yesterday.

“I think that based on the objectives we set out to achieve, we have substantially achieved them,” said Thomas. “I would definitely consider, that based on the trips I made, not only to Kingston and St Andrew, but to St Catherine, Clarendon and Portland as well, that the day’s activities were what we expected in terms of the participation by communities.”

The objectives, according to Thomas, were to clear inner-city communities of all types of garbage, both domestic and hurricane-produced, and to clean up residential communities and store the garbage to be picked up on day two. “All of that has been done,” added Thomas.

Co-coordinator Michael Ammar told the Sunday Observer that though rain threatened to derail his activities in Barbican and the surrounding hills, the day was a success. He and his 10-member team of young men started shortly after 7:00 am in the Manor Park/Stony Hill Area and by 5:00 pm had carted away six truck loads of hurricane debris.

“We’re tired, but everybody is happy,” said Ammar. “I think we accomplished a lot. We have cleaned Barbican, Jacks Hill, Millsborough, Skyline Drive, Sunset Drive, Cherry Gardens, Manor Park.”

He pointed out, however, that domestic garbage, which has not been collected in those areas for the past two weeks, is yet to be collected. Regarding downed trees and other hurricane-related garbage, Ammar said the communities had more or less regained their pre-Hurricane Dean look.

“We’ve brought the areas back to civilisation,” he said.

When the Sunday Observer caught up with Ammar’s team in Cherry Gardens, several teenaged boys and young men were working in the light rain, scraping up leaves and trash and emptying them into garbage bags, or picking up bags left by residents and loading them into one of Ammar’s panel vans.

“We’re volunteering because we want to see Jamaica clean.

We’re just doing our part to keep the country clean,” said Keeron Guyah and his colleague Dex Cabballero, both 17 years old.

The teens said on a Saturday they would normally have gone bird shooting with Ammar, but given the end of the season and the importance of the clean-up effort, they volunteered.

Yesterday, volunteers travelled to communities within the inner-city, in the hills of St Andrew and to some of those worst affected by Hurricane Dean last month. They used heavy-duty equipment to cut up fallen tree trunks and collect other heavy material.

The clean-up will continue today, but will concentrate more on collecting smaller tree parts and other relatively lightweight debris from roadsides across the country.

Golding toured some of those areas, including Jacks Hill, Denham Town, Tivoli Gardens, Old Harbour Bay, Rocky Point and Manchioneal. In Old Harbour Bay, where tractors scooped up mountains of downed trees and wood, zinc sheets, glass and other material from demolished houses and loaded them unto trucks, he entreated the residents to make the clean-up effort a continuous project as a means of maintaining a healthy environment and rekindling a culture of civic pride.

“I want to urge you, even as I thank you for what you have done so far, to make sure you continue this vigilance,” Golding told residents. “We’re very concerned because there’ve been a number of cases of dengue fever – some 40 cases in St Catherine – and it is garbage and debris and empty cans with water that breed dengue. So I’m gonna urge all of you to continue this exercise. Keep yuh yard clean, keep the front ah yuh yard clean, keep the back ah yuh yard clean and do that because if this dengue thing ever get out of hand, we’d have serious problems.”

“Keep the place clean. Keep Jamaica clean. Make Jamaica sweet again,” he reiterated.

Caretaker of the Old Harbour south division, Lloyd Grant, said he would do what he could to ensure residents maintain clean surroundings because “it is our duty to do so”. He and a group of 30 volunteers were busy yesterday cleaning the road leading from the Old Harbour square to Old Harbour Bay.