PORT ANTONIO, Portland — Solid waste management teams will be back in Portland today for the second phase of a push to rid sections of the parish of a half-year-long pile-up of garbage.

“We will have 13 trucks in Portland west and east as we will focus on the backlog that was here for over the six months. It will be a two-phase programme. We are here today [Thursday] and will be back Monday.

“We are doing deep cleaning now and will ensure that all communities will be cleaned by Monday. Special cleaning will be done in Manchioneal to Hector’s River where there are large amounts of garbage. We want to have clean communities going up to Christmas and into next year,” North Eastern Parks and Market (NEPM) Waste Management Limited Public Cleansing Manager Patrick Marshall told the Jamaica Observer last Thursday.

He and his team have married the removal of waste with promises of improved service going forward.

“We are letting the residents know that we are here to serve them and having a clean-up blitz. We will be going to all those areas that have a pile-up of garbage and you will see in the future an improvement in the garbage collection and the service that Portland is getting. We will remove what we are able to access as long as we are able to,” NEPM Community Relations Officer Donesha Briggs promised.

“Residents should see an improvement to the service on a weekly basis as garbage will be collected. We have had complaints from residents that the garbage is not collected over three, four weeks and there is a pile-up, and this will improve,” said Briggs.

She stressed, though, that residents also have a role to play in keeping their surroundings clean. Efforts will be made, she said, to ensure that they know what is required of them.

“We encourage garbage separation; and there will be some education like composting as garbage separation is up and running and we are in the schools educating our students. We are getting our residents to be aware as we bring about change,” added Briggs.

Portland received three of the 10 trucks assigned to NEPM, which also covers St Ann and St Mary. The parish now has eight trucks assigned to it.

Among the Portland communities that will benefit from the first phase of the clean-up blitz are Snow Hill, Port Antonio, Cooling Spring, Fairy Hill, Nonsuch, Sherwood Forest, Windsor Forest, Kensington, Manchioneal, Long Road, Hector’s River in the east and Shrewsbury in the west, Wakefield, Fruitful Vale, St Margaret’s Bay, Hope Bay, and Tranquility.

Portland resident Daniel was happy to see the work being done and is eager to see similar action being taken in his community.

“I like what you guys are doing and I think we needed it. I live in Drapers and the situation there is bad, it is terrible, and we need the cleaning up there as well,” he pleaded.

Fay Hartley from Breastwork was equally happy to see the parish being cleaned up but had one concern: “This skip is on private property and there is a lot of garbage behind it that needs to be cleaned. When the skip is full it overflows and don’t get cleaned up,” she pointed out to Briggs who promised Hartley that every effort would be made to address the situation.

— Everard Owen