Residents of Washington Gardens, Duhaney Park, and other neighbouring communities in St Andrew are holding their breaths, not only to limit inhaling the rancid scent and potentially noxious fumes from Riverton Dump that hug the night air, but they are in hopes that the dump, where 415 fires were ignited between 1996 and 2015, will be closed, giving them relief from the health and environmental hazards it coughs up almost annually.

Over the years, many residents from Riverton who rummage through the dump for items to sell tout it as a sustainable source of income. However, people living in surrounding communities want Prime Minister Andrew Holness to follow through on his announcement, during a joint sitting of the Senate and House of Representatives on August 5, 2022, that there is a pending decommissioning of the dump.

Carlene, who lives along Weymouth Drive in Washington Gardens, told the Jamaica Observer that the dump has made her life unpleasant.

“It need fi shut down. For years we have been dealing with Riverton. Years! The big burning and the smoke that would blow come over on us is one thing, but because we nuh have none fi a while, we don’t hear nothing. But the scent at night-time is unbearable. The closer you are to it, the worse it is for you. It is really horrible,” she lamented.

Vinette Johnson, who has lived in Olympic Gardens all her life, is also peeved by the scent from the dump, but is more concerned about its relocation.

“Where will the dump go? Does the prime minister have somewhere in mind? Because, if not, it will stay right there and continue causing problems. From mi a grow up mi know of rubbish going over Riverton, so where will it go now?” Johnson questioned.

“I want it to be moved because it is a problem. But right now I am more interested in hearing the prime minister announce where it will be relocated to. That is the first order of business. I don’t want anymore promises to hold on to,” she continued.

Andre, who lives in Duhaney Park, agreed, saying there is a lingering foul odour in the air that people have grown accustomed to.

“As you touch Spanish Town Road you really sense the change in the air. You just want to come down on the bridge or turn off from Seaview. The air just smell like a dead dog scent or some other dead animal stink in the air. And a so wi a live for a long time… longer than I can remember. It is a funky, sour smell weh will mek anybody skin up dem nose,” he told the Sunday Observer.

“Wi want them fi close the dump. More while you will deh home and everything alright, and then you just smell the scent rise up. Sometimes you smell it worse than some, but overall, there is just always a little scent that you can’t avoid,” he said.

Diana McCaulay, founder of Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), told the Sunday Observer that the dump should’ve been decommissioned years ago. McCaulay lamented that it was a minor problem that became a major problem.

“Jamaican law requires waste disposal sites to have an environmental permit; Riverton is a towering reminder of our willingness to tolerate breaches of the law, even when — perhaps especially when — they are committed by the State,” she said.

“This dump and all Jamaica’s dumps contain every type of human detritus — discarded batteries, car tyres, electronic waste, rotten meat, plastic of breathtaking scale and variety, construction waste, the paper of industry, the cardboard of a throwaway, mobile, developing country, even medical waste on occasion,” she said.

McCaulay added that the dump has few of the attributes of a landfill, and is perceived as a lawless place.

“Water quality monitoring programmes have ended due to threats of violence. Heavy equipment has been vandalised. Administrative buildings have been torched. Trucks have been hijacked on the entrance road by scrap metal traders. Not one single condition of the required environmental permit issued by Government regulators in 2005 to improve management and conditions at Riverton was adhered to. The permit expired in 2010 and was only reissued in 2018.”

A Washington Gardens resident, who gave her name only as Annmarie, said the scent from the dump is more unbearable at nights.

“You better don’t open your window a night-time. It is a disgusting thing and an uncomfortable way to have to live. When you step outside, it is just stinkness. It is the same thing in the early morning, like two, three o’clock. Sometimes you are here and you don’t even remember it until you go on the road and come back. And that nuh right, because it goes to show that it is like we are getting immune to this thing,” she said.

On March 13, 2015 a massive fire at the approximately 120-acres dump resulted in the closure of 63 schools in Kingston, St Andrew, and St Catherine because of smoke pollution. Of that number, 30 were high schools. The remainder were primary and infant schools. The fire had started on March 7 and was one of 46 at the site that year alone.

Duhaney Park Primary reported that a teacher and a student had fainted as a result of the smoke, and the Ministry of Education advised the public that the schools that were closed on March 13 were to remain closed on Monday, March 16 until the smog had subsided. The closure of schools affected more than 61,000 students and 3,137 teachers.

Calabar High School on Red Hills Road was one of the affected schools. Guidance counsellor Reverend Stephen Smith told the Sunday Observer that it was a troubling period.

“The constant smell of smoke — it was a very difficult time for many schools and individuals like myself. Having to close school meant that the students would have been missing out on their learning experience because of the Riverton fire. It is unfortunate whenever that happens because it is a serious health hazard. No one wants to inhale such fumes coming from the dump, and, of course, it is always a sad state when that happens,” Smith said.

“Whenever the dump is on fire, it surely affects not just schools… it affects businesses and so on. Looking back, that has always been a difficult moment to see the Riverton dump on fire and affecting individuals, where you have to wear masks so as not to inhale what is coming from it in order to protect your own health. So it is something regrettable. I trust that we will not go through something like that again. I remember it vividly,” Smith added.

A report issued the following year by then Public Defender Arlene Harrison Henry stated that, “A large section of the Jamaican community suffered from diverse respiratory conditions during this period and struggled with inhaling smoke which saturated the air for most of the month of March 2015. The Ministry of Health reported that the majority of people who sought medical assistance from the public health facilities were children.”

In fact, the health ministry had revealed that more than 3,000 peeople were treated by public health institutions for respiratory issues.

Last month the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) said it was investigating a fire that started sometime after 1:00 pm on July 12 at a section of the dump and eventually spread to another.

Firefighters worked assiduously to put out the blaze. NSWMA Executive Director Audley Gordon had said the NSWMA had materials stored in the area which helped it to contain the fire.

In August 2018, after a series of fires blamed on arsonists, Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie said military and police personnel were to be dispatched to the disposal site. At the time, McKenzie said, based on information received, arsonists were planning to strike again.

Describing it as a “poor reflection on us as a country”, the minister said private security was also dispatched and “beefed up” in the area.

In his August 5, 2022 address in Parliament, Holness said the Government has undertaken a comprehensive review of the country’s public sanitation, garbage collection, and waste disposal system which, he acknowledged, was a “perennial problem for Jamaica”.

“We now have a plan which will see greater private sector participation in waste collection, the introduction of waste-to-energy conversion, the commissioning of new and properly built disposal sites, and the decommissioning of various dumps, including the Riverton City Dump,” the prime minister said.

Another Duhaney Park resident, who opted to be identified only by her first name, Janet, told the Sunday Observer the the dump should have been closed following the March 2015 fire.

“It is awful. Riverton dump should have been closed years ago. I never really understood how we have a dump so close to communities where there are so many people and businesses. It never made sense. The very fact that they allowed the dump to remain there after that big fire years ago shows that no thought went into it after. It was just left to repeat the same issue,” she said.

In the aftermath of the March 2015 fire, the Office of the Public Defender investigated the matter, particularly as it relates to the management and oversight of the site as entrusted to the NSWMA and the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA).

The report was completed and released with eight recommendations:

1) That people who had to receive medical attention as a direct result of the March 2015 fire be identified and monitored by the Ministry of Health to determine the long-term effects, if any, at no cost to such individuals.

2) Any person appointed, employed, or otherwise engaged to manage public bodies ought to be possessed of the necessary formal training, experience, and demonstrable expertise before such appointment is made.

3) Public bodies should make public their quarterly reports and half yearly reports which are prepared for the ministry with responsibility.

4) That the conditions stipulated by NEPA in its environmental permit and all other material legislation be strictly adhered to.

5) The NSWMA takes legal advice on its functions, and organisational and operational structure from the attorney general and steps be taken to fulfil Parliament’s mandate.

6) That a forensic audit be conducted on the accounts of the NSWMA and its affiliate entities/subsidiary companies.

7) The contractor general investigates the circumstances under which the NSWMA has come to be indebted to former employees in a sum in excess of $200,000,000 as a result of IDT awards arising from dismissals in a previous period.

8) The contractor general also investigates the allegations raised by Member of Parliament Desmond McKenzie, now minister of local government, in Parliament that the contractors engaged by the NSWMA are People’s National Party loyalists.