LUCEA, Hanover — The impact of the novel coronavirus has delayed plans by Western Parks and Markets (WPM) to launch a gardening project for schools across western Jamaica early in the new academic year.

In fact, regional operations manager for the WPM Waste Management Limited — an arm of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) — Garnet Edmondson, said the entity was hoping that Jamaicans would have responded well to the vaccine that would assist in bringing the country back to a sense of normalcy by now.

“Our projection came up wrong. We would have thought by now [that] schools would be back in when we saw the first stage of the COVID numbers that went down and then it spiked up back again. So, we were hoping by now schools would be in because if you look around, all of my staff members, all of us are vaccinated. So, we took it for granted that everybody would fall in and would want to get back to life,” stated Edmondson.

The operations manager argued that while the entity can utilise methods currently being used by schools to deliver classes, a method will have to be worked out for the delivery of the practical aspect of the programme that is aimed at educating students about proper solid waste management.

“It still means that we cannot allow because we are having COVID to say no we are not going to help to educate young minds about proper solid waste management. We will still have to find a way and I always say, this is why we are employed to find a way to make sure that we solve the present problems,” argued Edmondson.

“We will be using all the communication medium that is necessary and available to us to make sure that we impart this information and make sure that our kids (children) understand that their role in managing their solid waste is very important to the environment and to their future.”

The WPM’s operations manager was responding to queries from the Jamaica Observer West during a recent tree-planting exercise in observance of National Tree Planting Day at the Hanover Parish Library.