MONTEGO BAY, St James — The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) says a depleted fleet has been impacting its ability to collect garbage in St James.

“During August, we were not able to completely collect all the communities on schedule. This is because we have been having some mechanical challenges with a number of our trucks,” NSWMA Community Relations Manager Sharnon Williams explained during the most recent monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation.

“On average, St James would have approximately 14 trucks operating; but we were only able to operate with nine during the period,” she explained.

Williams said two of the mini compactors used to access small spaces are out of service and this has had a significant impact on the NSWMA’s operation.

“One was involved in an accident and the other has mechanical challenges. This has limited our ability to clean particular areas such as sections of Rose Heights, Cartagena Lane, etc,” she revealed.

Acknowledging that there has been a backlog in the collection of garbage in some areas since August, Williams asked residents to be patient as the agency tries to get back on schedule.

“We continue to reassign units from other parishes and other regions to assist with cleaning the backlogs. We had special operations whereby we were able to remove five loads of backlog waste, as well as bulky waste and derelict vehicles within St James,” she said.

“What we have also been doing, though, is increasing our night collection. We now have a robust night collection, especially in Montego Bay, so that in the morning the waste is minimised. We are trying as much as possible to work around the mechanical challenges that we are facing,” Williams declared.

However, while she spoke of the shortcomings at the NSWMA, she also used the opportunity to once again urge residents to properly dispose of their garbage.

“We continue to face issues with the migration of waste. This is evident in the Norwood area where persons would bring their garbage and deposit it along that area and so you find that we have to be there every single day to collect that space. That is also happening in Mount Salem,” she said.

“Illegal dumping continues to be a challenge; however, our enforcement team continues to do patrol within the space and we also clean these dump sites on a daily basis,” Williams added.

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