THIS section of the Sandy Gully, in the Drumblair community off Waterloo Road in St Andrew, has definitely not benefited from the Government’s $320-million Gully Intervention Programme.

The programme, announced by Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke when he opened the 2020/2021 budget debate in the House of Representatives on March 10, 2020, was aimed at cleaning all major gullies in the Corporate Area.

At the time Dr Clarke had said that, while the programme would be heavily operational, efforts would be made to deliver a public education campaign “as it makes no sense to clean up while others ‘dutty up’ ”.

He said the programme was expected to be a major game-changer and that once the gullies were cleaned “we want them to stay clean”.

Minister Clarke had also said that the clean-up programme would focus on settlements along the banks of gullies, most of which are difficult, if not impossible, for garbage trucks to traverse.

The National Solid Waste Management Authority was put in charge of the programme and should have recruited people from the targeted communities, train them as environment wardens, and task them to manage the solid waste in their areas.