SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — Residents in Westmoreland can now breathe a sigh of relief as the National Solid Waste Management Authority’s (NSWMA) ‘Operation Sweep’ initiative has reached their communities and its teams are now working overtime to clear the backlog of uncollected garbage.

The parish-wide initiative, which started on Thursday, ran through to Saturday afternoon.

For months residents complained of the massive garbage pile-up, and many had to resort to using illegal dump sites.

While addressing Thursday’s monthly meeting of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation, executive director of the NSWMA, Audley Gordon conceded that the authority had fallen short in the level of service provided, and he profusely apologised for the backlog.

“We have incurred quite a debt with the people of Jamaica, and Westmoreland in particular. We did not provide the kind of service that the people deserved in the last eight to 10 months; things got a little behind on us,” he admitted.

With six new trucks added to its previous fleet the parish now has 14 trucks to help clear the backlog.

As he has done in other sections of the country, Gordon repeated his call for everyone to work together to ensure that Jamaica has its cleanest Christmas ever. This, he said, would require a display of “civic pride” that will prevent littering.

While Councillor Ian Myles (People’s National Party, Little London Division) lauded Gordon for his honesty in admitting that the NSWMA had fallen short in the past, he stressed that Operation Sweep is merely a temporary fix. He questioned what will happen when the project comes to an end.

Gordon assured him that the initiative is not a “one-night stand” and that the NSWMA is committed to collecting garbage in Westmoreland once per week.

However, Myles suggested that the NSWMA consider providing the parish with a suitable dump site. The parish’s waste is now trucked to St James as there is neither a dump site nor a transfer station in Westmoreland.