REYNEULD Abrahams, enforcement officer and public health cleansing warden at the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), is calling for the employment of additional manpower to tackle wide-scale illegal dumping and littering across the island.

“From my perspective, I believe we could do well with some more officers. We need to take a deeper look into the policing of dumping and littering. Some people think it is a joke. They commit the offence repetitively and they want to hide from our officers,” Abrahams told the Jamaica Observer on Monday during the MPM Waste Management Limited observance of National Solid Waste Day.

Abrahams added: “They run away from us sometimes because they know what they are doing is wrong. We do not chase them though, because our safety is of great concern. We do not carry weapons, only a baton and handcuffs for restraining purposes. It is a challenge out there. When the people see us, they call us the ‘piss’ police and they say, ‘you guys don’t carry guns’. Some of them come at us with knives and other stuff.”

Further, Abrahams, who has been in this role for six years, shared that his duties as warden include sensitising the public on proper and acceptable garbage disposal methods, plus apprehending and issuing tickets to people who are caught littering, urinating or defecating in public spaces.

But despite the powers of the public health cleansing wardens, an official uniform, a baton and a pair of handcuffs, Abrahams said the public is not phased and oftentimes attack wardens.

“I can show you pictures of people ripping off my clothes when I am trying to restrain them. In Half-Way-Tree and downtown Kingston, when you try to apprehend them, they fight back. If anyone is thinking of coming into a field like this, they have to be prepared mentally, physically and psychologically. Luckily we have been equipped with mental tools through the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF). They send us to classes to teach you how to control our emotions and behaviour, how to manage aggression and deal with aggressive people,” he said.

Abrahams said after receiving tickets from wardens, offenders have 21 days to pay up. If they do not, the next step is to haul them before a parish court depending on which parish an offence was committed. Ticket prices range from $2,000 up to $10,000 for violations.

Meanwhile, Rachael Reid, customer relations officer of MPM Waste Management Limited, joined members of her team to hand out pamphlets and sensitise the public on acceptable practices. Reid said, “littering is a big problem” and hinted that it doesn’t take much work to notice illegal dump sites all over.

“People just come out and throw garbage on the road. Sometimes if the truck doesn’t come in time, they take the garbage and throw it various places. We encourage people to containerise their waste until the truck comes. There is no excuse for littering. We might be a little late, but we will be there. Continue to bag it, bin it and we will collect it,” she said.

Excited to participate in Monday’s activities, which ran from morning to mid-afternoon, was Dr Milton Clarke, systems operation and environment manager of the Jamaica Social investment Fund (JSIF).

Clarke pointed out that JSIF has partnered with the NSWMA for more than 10 years on two projects. The two projects are the World Bank funded, Inner-city Basic Services for the Poor and the Integrated Community Development Project. JSIF also has a programme for training and employing environmental wardens to help clean the streets on a regular basis.

“Under that we have implemented several solid waste projects across 30 communities across Jamaica including providing support to the NSWMA with garbage compacter trucks to improve their efficiency in collection of waste from communities. We have placed more than 4,000 bins across these 30 communities.”

These communities include Denham Town, Tivoli Gardens, Rose Town, Majesty Gardens, Maxfield Park, Wilton Gardens in Kingston and St Andrew. In St Catherine, bins were placed in Central Village, Tawes Meadows. In St James, these bins can be found in Anchovy, Salt Spring, Granville, Retirement and Barry Town. JSIF also funded the placement of bins Tread light and Canaan Heights in Clarendon.