MONTEGO BAY, St James — The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) is moving to strengthen garbage collection across St James and Hanover following growing concerns about delays and an accumulation of waste in sections of the two western parishes.

Speaking during a stop in Norwood, St James, on Wednesday, NSWMA Executive Director Audley Gordon said the aim is to identify weaknesses in the current system and determine what changes are needed to improve service delivery.

“This operation today in this area of western Jamaica is very important for us because it is revealing to us some things that we have to do differently and some things that we have to step up; if we are doing it now we have to step up a little bit,” he said during a media briefing called to discuss solid waste management issues affecting western Jamaica.

“We’ll be just looking at the garbage situation all over St James and Hanover today.

We have gotten several complaints and we know from our own internal records that we are behind in the parish and we want to do something about it.

Which is why I’m down here today with a team and we are going to look to see how we can tweak our operation further,” he added.

According to Western Parks and Market (WPM), the regional arm of NSWMA, the region currently has a 72-load backlog, most of which — 31 loads — are in St James.

Westmoreland is at 21, Trelawny at 12 and Hanover is at eight.

On Wednesday, Gordon said the NSWMA team brought in six additional trucks to help tackle the backlog.

“We have brought in some additional units and we are [here] just to beef up what we have,” he explained.

The region recently received additions to its own fleet and, with some units down, there were 14 trucks operational as of Wednesday.

Gordon said efforts are being made to swiftly repair the ones that are down.

The NSWMA head is in the thick of what he described as a mini tour across Jamaica to examine garbage build-up.

“I’m looking at hot spots, what’s driving the hot spots, [and] what possible interventions we can deploy in these hot spots to make them a little more liveable, a little more pleasing aesthetically,” he explained.

One of those hot spots is on Norwood main road.

“We did a little drive around the community earlier today and we realised, talking to residents, that this area here is the main sore eye but it need not be so,” Gordon said.

Directly under ‘no dumping’ signs, overflowing rubbish was mixed in with bulky waste, including old car parts and construction material.

“It may look so but it’s not a dump site and we will ensure that we get [that] into the heads of people — not just the community members because since standing here I have observed cars driving and I’m told that a lot of them are from outside which take their garbage and dump here,” said Gordon.

He said plans would now be put in place to find a long-term solution to handle bulky waste coming out of Norwood.

“We’re gonna initiate in the Norwood area, a monthly bulky waste clean-up because we want Norwood people to help us to police this area,” Gordon outlined.

The goal is to provide solid service to the community in the hope that residents will then help NSWMA keep an eye out for improper garbage disposal.

The plan is to also engage the councillor and the member of parliament for the area in beautifying the area now being used as a dump site.

“We can take over the space, create something beautiful here so that it is no longer even thought of to dump at this location,” Gordon insisted.

“This strip here would look so beautiful where we to put in some palms and some hard flowers and stuff like that — maybe two benches old people can sit down.

Just imagine that, instead of what you have here,” he added.

Gordon also spoke of plans to remove derelict vehicles from within Norwood.

“I’ve already given directive for a mapping to be done, a proper mapping of the area, to identify all the derelict vehicles.

Towards the back end of the month we will be coordinating a major derelict vehicle removal programme for this area,” promised the NSWMA’s executive director.