MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Even as 134 staff of Southern Parks and Markets (SPM) were last Thursday recognised for their sterling and long service, Minister of Local Government Desmond McKenzie says a cleaner Jamaica is the responsibility of every citizen.

“I feel proud as your minister when I go around and I engage people who are talking and they would say, ‘Mr McKenzie, we have seen a difference with the people working on the streets. They display a high level of decency. They are not there harassing people… We are proud of them,’ ” he told his audience at SPM’s awards function at the Garden Hotel on Thursday night.

“I want to salute you, not just as workers. When I was in Kingston there was one man who did more than 35 years of his life serving the people of the Corporate Area, making their surroundings clean. The call for Jamaica to be cleaner cannot be the call of the Government and the National Solid Waste [Management] Authority [NSWMA] ; it has to be the responsibility of all of us,” added McKenzie.

SPM, which is a subsidiary of the NSWMA, is responsible for solid waste management in Clarendon, Manchester, and St Elizabeth.

McKenzie pointed to the launch of the Cleaning, Advising, Leveraging and Maintaining (CALM) programme launched in Clarendon, while emphasising the personal responsibility of Jamaicans to keep their environment clean.

The programme is a national clean-up and public sensitisation programme aimed at strengthening the resilience of flood-prone communities across Jamaica. On Thursday the programme was extended to hurricane-ravaged Black River in St Elizabeth.

“I don’t want you to allow anybody to burst your bubbles by saying that the garbage is not being collected. I am not making any excuses [but] one thing I can say to you, ‘If we give every single community in Jamaica a garbage truck, you think that [practise of littering] is going to change?” he asked.

“The change has to come from inside of us. We must recognise and respect our environment, and if we don’t have an appreciation for cleanliness we will always be here talking about garbage,” he added.

McKenzie lauded the SPM workers who, despite being affected by Category 5 Hurricane Melissa, worked tirelessly in the clean-up and recovery efforts.

“We want to thank you. And it is important that we say that [thanks] to you because many of you work under trying conditions. During the passage of [Hurricane] Melissa some of you couldn’t go home. You didn’t have any home to go to, but it never prevented you from turning up to work to play your part in the restoration,” he said.

“The country owes you a debt of gratitude. Not many of you walk on the lawns of King’s House to receive a national honour from His Excellency [Sir Patrick Allen], but in our own way we must honour you…although this is a small token of appreciation. You know the difference those plaques make when your children can look [at them] and say, ‘My father or my mother contributed to Jamaica’s success and keeping our streets clean.’ Many of the meagre salaries that you were getting, you were able to put your children through primary school, into high school, and through university,” added McKenzie.

Regional manager at SPM Waste Management Limited, Sheldon Smith also commended the staff, some of whom have served for 15 years and others over 30 years.

“It is inspiring and has touched my heart to know that persons could have dedicated themselves for so many years in the service of the Jamaican people, in keeping the country clean,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“It is a humbling feeling also, because to know that a person has been on the road on a truck doing sanitation work for over 30 years, it is true dedication, and love for the work, and love for the people of Jamaica, and love for your country,” he said.

He also pointed to the recently opened regional SPM office, for almost 500 staff, at Hanbury off the Winston Jones Highway in Manchester.

“It has increased staff morale in a very serious way; it has impacted them. They feel good coming to work now. Even the sanitation officers who are on the road and the sweepers, it is much more pleasurable for them to come to the office and for us to interact with them. There is more space, parking is adequate, and everything about the building is good. It shows modernisation,” he said.