RESIDENTS of Riverton Meadows in Kingston were overjoyed yesterday as the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), in collaboration with the Jamaica Security Force and the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation, removed tons of scrap metal and garbage from the front of the community, one of the poorest in the Jamaican capital.

“Mi feel good, mi glad. Anybody who no feel good no have no ambition. Mi proud till mi no know wah fi do,” Noel Nicholas, who has been living there for 46 years, told the Jamaica Observer.

“Watch deh, look how the place look good,” Nicholas said as tractors driven by members of the Jamaica Defence Force load scrap metal and other debris on trucks in front of the community.

“Mi feel good til mi caa feel good no more. Mi can walk and see mi house,” said Carmelita Campbell, another resident.

Campbell pointed out that people who pass by daily believe the front to Riverton was part of the city’s dump site because of its proximity, but made it clear that it is not.

Campbell, who has been living in the community for 48 years, said she was concerned and at the same time embarrassed by the pile-up of scrap metal at the front of the community. She is hoping the area will remain clean.

Like Campbell and Nicholas, 28-year-old Peta-Gay Thorpe said she welcomed the initiative but raised concerns about a house/shop that was dismantled during the process.

“Them shouldn’t lick down the man house but mi feel good. The place look good. Not because down here name Riverton, the place should look like this,” Thorpe continued.

And like Campbell, Jennifer Reid said she would be able to see her house from the main road.

“Mi feel real good. I am not afraid to come in no more. Me can see who a come and who nah come,” Reid said.

“When light gone and these pack up here so, JPS (light and power company) can’t pass because these (scrap metal) a block them out. We appreciate weh dem a do to help we out [because] when the light gone down here a nuff things happen… rape, murder, and them things deh gwan,” said a woman who gave her name only as Nickeisha.

The woman, who has been residing in the community for 25 years, however, raised concern that as soon as the debris and scrap metal are removed illicit scrap metal dealers will return.

Executive Director of the NSWMA Audley Gordon told the Jamaica Observer that the clean-up would be continued over the next two to three days, at a cost of more than $4 million.

Gordon said the NSWMA is currently having dialogue to see how best the agency can beautify that section of Spanish Town Road when the clean-up is completed.

In February, scrap metal dealers who had items stored in front of Riverton Meadows were issued a seven-day notice to remove them but most apparently ignored the notice as they continued with their business.