SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — As if their struggles with intense drought are not enough, residents of the Junction and Southfield areas of South East St Elizabeth have had to contend with a garbage pile-up in recent weeks.

However, Richard Sadhi, regional operations manager of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), says improved garbage collection will be seen by this weekend with the repair of two trucks which had broken down.

Sadhi said two of the four trucks operated by the NSWMA in St Elizabeth went down in recent weeks, forcing the temporary reassignment of a truck from Manchester to help ease the situation.

“I have to apologise to the residents for the situation, but things should already be improving and we expect to be back to normal by weekend,” Sadhi said.

Councillor for the Southfield Division Gregory Myers (JLP), who brought the problem to the attention of the Jamaica Observer, complained that the pile-up was particularly evident in Southfield and Junction communities.

“With all the reports of diseases circulating, the last thing we need is uncollected garbage,” said Myers. “The NSWMA has to get its act together; we know there are resource problems, but everything must be done to ensure garbage is collected efficiently,” he said.

He noted what he described as an ongoing problem of the NSWMA being seemingly unable to keep its trucks in “workable condition for any length of time”.

Sadhi told the Observer that the normal situation is for garbage to be collected in the main towns nightly and on a weekly basis in the more rural districts.