THREE weeks after the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) had 10 additional tipper trucks commissioned into service, the agency is reporting that it has managed to clear 27,000 of the 450,000 truckloads of debris left by Hurricane Melissa.

On Monday, NSWMA Executive Director Audley Gordon, while acknowledging that the volume of waste cleared so far is small, appealed to Jamaicans for patience as he vowed that his teams are working “night and day”. Additionally, he said a newly formed temporary Debris Management Unit will be in talks with private contractors to source additional heavy machinery, to further fast-track efforts to move debris.

“I know the math brains out there will say, ‘But if you have [nearly] 500,000 [truckloads] and you just move 27,000, you haven’t started. Why is it taking so long?’ I need everyone to understand that while we’re at 27,000 now, the next time we speak we’ll be at over 50,000 because we’re not stopping,” Gordon said at a press conference held at the agency’s Half-Way-Tree Road, St Andrew headquarters.

A press briefing, he said, will be held each quarter to provide an update on the state of debris management.

On December 10, at the handover ceremony of the 10 tipper trucks, Gordon disclosed that the agency had managed to remove 15,000 loads of debris, five weeks after the Category 5 storm struck Jamaica on October 28, 2025. At the time, he expressed confidence in the process being fast-tracked due to the additional tipper trucks.

On Monday, he told journalists that the agency’s commitment remained unwavering, noting that a team within the NSWMA was formed to undertake all matters concerning debris management to ensure greater efficiency.

“We have pulled two managers and a director, plus other staff members in from their regular activities, into what we call a Debris Management Committee. It is absolutely necessary because the scope of this particular debris management project requires a kind of administrative and operational focus that would be very distracting and, in fact, destabilising of the regular domestic garbage collection operation.

“We could not do the two things at once with the same leadership, focusing on both and doing them successfully. So we’re building out another temporary operational unit called the Debris Management Unit, and this will be exclusively focused on managing, on a day-to-day, the debris that’s out there,” explained Gordon.

He said that the intention to engage private contractors was necessary, as even though the 10 additional tipper trucks have made a difference, they were simply not enough.

“We never have the view that the NSWMA alone can do this. And so, in our moving around we have identified need for heavy-duty equipment operators. So we have engaged not just trucks but backhoes, and front-end loaders,” Gordon said.

“So, in the whole process, we are providing good work for businesses locally, especially our heavy-duty equipment truckers, and we find that to be very helpful because it’s easy to see a headline that we’ve got 10 new tipper trucks and then the argument is that, ‘Oh, they can’t deliver it’. Ten tipper trucks cannot do the job. We would be here five years’ time still collecting debris with 10 tipper trucks,” argued Gordon.

He highlighted the Government’s consistent support, noting that since the passage of the hurricane, the NSWMA received about $1.5 billion dedicated to debris management, additional trucks, alongside a new commitment of another 10 tipper trucks.

Gordon told the media that while he understood that many Jamaicans have been waiting for a long time to see some relief, he was asking for the public for more patience as the NSWMA and its many partners continue to do all that they can to remedy the situation.

“We’re going to get it done, but it will take some time. So it becomes my duty also to advise the public that we will be out there night and day, and we ask for understanding. We ask for reasonableness. We ask for patience. You might not see the truck in your area yet, but we’re coming. We’re in this together, and I, again, humbly ask for your understanding. We will deliver on behalf of the people of Jamaica,” he said.