OPPOSITION Leader Andrew Holness has reiterated his call for the Riverton dump to be privatised as the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) cannot be both a regulator and an operator of the site.

His call comes even as toxic smoke continues to linger over the city from the dump, which has been on fire for nearly two weeks.

“The policy of the JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) on the dump is firstly that a regulator should not be an operator. NSWMA is a regulator trying to police its own standards, and whenever that happens, where there is a breach, there is no accountability,” he said.

Holness, who along with members of his team of spokespersons, was addressing the weekly Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s head office in Kingston yesterday, said the divestment process would be greatly helped if Government would pass legislation to mandate the separation of waste at the point of generation.

“The JLP, when it becomes Government, will put in place such legislation,” he said, adding that this is absolutely critical to the development of a feasible and sustainable waste-management industry in Jamaica.

He noted that, during his tenure, the JLP-led Government had a solid proposal for turning the dump into a waste-to-energy plant. This, however, failed to get off the ground because of the change in government in December 2011.

“Credit must be given that we did start the process of turning the Riverton City dump into a productive enterprise. We started to use it for the creation of compost and we started to sell compost,” he explained.

Among the challenges with waste in Jamaica, according to Holness, is the fact that there has been a failure to establish an e-waste policy to govern the disposal of things like appliances and telephones, which contains all sorts of chemicals.

Although there had been fires at the dump under his Administration’s watch, Holness said it was never allowed to get so out of control as happened this time around.

“We have had fires at the dump, but none of them under our Administration has lasted this long or has had this devastating effect, because the previous management had pre-positioned material that could be used and they put in place security measures,” he explained.

He also reiterated the point made in his recent contribution to the Budget Debate that the NSWMA should no longer be allowed to be used as a trough, feeding tree or the loophole through which government funds escape into partisanship.

Meanwhile, Holness said divestment will not necessarily mean the displacement of people who earn a living from the dump.

“We are not saying that by virtue of this policy of divesting that the people who live in the environs of the dump should be excluded. The people who live at Riverton City should be brought to the understanding, and I think the PNP (People’s National Party) has a greater duty in this regard because whenever we talk about NSWMA being a feeding tree, in that the people who are closest to that feeding tree, 99 per cent vote for the PNP,” he said.

He pointed out that the aim is not to look merely at the economic side, given the deeper social issues such as that of the people who earn an income from the dump.

“What we are trying to do is to make it easier for them to make a living in a more structured and meaningful way,” he said.

Holness said Kingston is not the first city to have a dump in its proximity, but the difference is that others have developed the technology and the institutions to manage them properly.

“It is a stupid argument to say we don’t have the funds to manage the dump, yet when there is a fire you find the funds to deal with it,” he said, adding, “let us, as leaders, make the decision to say, once and for all, we are going to fix it.”