A new report on the work of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) by the Auditor General’s Department indicates that regulations needed to improve the management of public waste are missing.

Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis, in her introduction to the report tabled in Parliament last week, said that the management of solid waste in Jamaica, in particular, the collection of garbage, has been a perennial public concern despite significant expenditure of public funds over the years.

“Over the period 2016-17 to 2020-21, approximately $32 billion was allocated for solid waste management, with more than half ($17.5 billion) disbursed from the collections of property tax,” Monroe Ellis said.

Despite this outlay, there have been complaints from citizens about poor quality service provided relative to that expected, the pile-up of garbage in communities and along roads, and the threat to the environment and public health, Monroe Ellis added.

The auditor general stated that while these issues have been the subject of significant policy development, “We found that the necessary regulations to fully establish the National Solid Waste Management Authority as a regulatory body were not in place.”

Monroe Ellis added, “In the absence of supporting regulations, Jamaica is at risk of not achieving its national goal to ‘manage all forms of waste effectively’ by the year 2030.”

Notably, issues relating to inefficient waste collection and improper disposal are among several factors that informed the development of a National Solid Waste Management (NSWM) Policy in 2000, and the passing of the NSWM Act in 2001.

Vision 2030, Jamaica’s national development plan (NDP) published in 2009, also acknowledged the range of issues related to solid waste management, and articulated a comprehensive national strategy to ‘manage all forms of waste effectively’ in achieving national outcome number 13 — ‘Sustainable Management and Use of Environment and Natural Resource’.

The agencies responsible for implementing the related strategy actions to address the problems affecting solid waste management were outlined in the Vision 2030 NDP and the Government’s medium-term socioeconomic framework.

However, the regulatory framework for effective waste management is lacking, the auditor general said. The new performance audit assessed the process by which frameworks for effective solid waste management were being implemented.

The report also outlines other issues relating to the funding and management of solid waste and provides recommendations for consideration by the NSWMA and ministry with oversight responsibility.

In its summary of weaknesses found, the audit indicated that there is poor coordination among implementing agencies. Additionally, enabling regulations to support the NSWM Act and firmly establish NSWMA as a regulatory authority are not in place. NSWMA was intended to perform management functions with the private sector responsible for collection, transportation and disposal functions.

The audit stated that in the absence of enabling regulations, the NSWMA’s role was mainly confined to the collection and transportation of solid waste and operation of waste disposal sites, instead of focusing on its regulatory functions.

It was also noted that waste disposal sites remain the means of disposing solid waste because NSWMA is yet to adopt modern engineering methods in the disposal of solid waste, including the development of sanitary landfills.

No sanitary landfill exists in Jamaica.

Notably, seven of the eight waste disposal sites are deemed inefficient and have outlived their life cycle; only three have the environmental permits to operate, although there is a high rate of non-compliance with the specific conditions of the permits. The audit also noted that waste disposal sites operate in breach of environmental laws.

The NSWMA has implemented waste separation pilot projects aimed at reducing the volume of recyclable waste going to disposal sites, but the limited scale of these projects have not been sufficiently effective to encourage better waste disposal practices, it was noted.