PORT ANTONIO, Portland — Poor solid waste management, a missing manhole and a damaged sewage pit are among the issues cited by a public health official who has warned that there are breaches at several of Portland’s nine police stations.

“We can only say probably one or two of all our police stations in this parish are satisfactory. Even the new Manchioneal Police Station that was just refurbished, there is an issue there that needs to be resolved to make it satisfactory,” chief public health inspector for the parish Lorenzo Hume told last Thursday’s monthly meeting of the municipal corporation.

“Just a simple manhole… would make the facility satisfied,” he added in response to a query for further details.

Hume also told the locally elected representatives that “the Hope Bay and Orange Bay police stations had issues to include poor solid waste management, [while] Orange Bay had a damaged sewage pit”.

He also expressed concern about water quality issues at Spring Hill Police Station.

“The biggest issue I know of Spring Hill is an issue relating to the water. If they change the water, they’re taking water from a pool and a pool. There are two sources going to Spring Hill and they need to disconnect one of them to get the approved source into the station. They are mixing the water and that’s where the challenge is,” the public health official cautioned.

He urged councillors to take the lead in speaking with the “relevant authorities” in an effort to have the issues addressed. In his view, the current approach of leaving it to senior members of the police force is not effective as their focus is elsewhere and there is high staff turnover.

“The problem we have with police stations, we are here today talking to Superintendent X and tomorrow it’s Superintendent Y, and the conversation has to start all over and you getting a different understanding,” explained Hume.

“By the time you think, they assign another officer because of their workload and that officer is gone. There needs to be some coordination as to how the police manage their stations. The police are saying they [are] about policing, not about plant management,” he added.

He had better news about the schools in the parish and provided data that showed most of them are up to code.

“We have 86 per cent satisfactory rate in terms of the status of our schools and therefore we are comfortable with that at this point in time,” said Hume.

He also weighed in on the discussion about the need for central government support in eradicating rodents from the parish. He addressed his comments to Member of Parliament for Portland Eastern Isat Buchanan, who was at the meeting.

“The municipality does its part. I ask, sir, as a new MP, [for you] to make your mark. We have a budget and we only got 12.5 per cent of that budget. Wherever you see it fit that you can make a contribution to the $16-million budget, which inflation would have raised by now, we look forward to that contribution, sir. We can’t allow you to just come here and we don’t make that appeal because it is important now that we are in a post-disaster period,” urged Hume.

The eradication of rodents has taken on greater urgency as, in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, there has been an increase in the number of cases of leptospirosis, a disease carried by these pests and some small animals.

“There is leptospirosis across other parts of the country and we can have the issue here. We have the environment conducive to it. It’s because of the good work that we are doing [that there are minimal cases] and we want to continue to maintain that,” added Hume.