St Catherine councillors want speedy garbage collection

Several councillors attending Thursday’s monthly general meeting of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation were displeased with the garbage collection in their respective divisions, and accused the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) of not being responsive to their plight.

According to the councillors, the festive season has created a lot more household garbage, and the slow response of the NSWMA to effect timely collection has contributed to a pile-up of household waste in a number of communities.

William Cytal, councillor for the Riversdale division, wants urgent attention to be given to the Riversdale Housing Scheme where, he said a major health crisis is impending if the garbage collection situation is not address.

“Coming out of the festive season, there is excess garbage in the Riversdale Housing Scheme, the pile-up has caused a foul odour to be emanating from the community. We are hoping that this problem can be addressed as quickly as possible,” he stated.

DIVISION-WIDE PROBLEM

Bog Walk councillor Peter Abrahams, in addressing the issue, said there is a serious problem with garbage collection overall in his division, especially in the High Mountain area, where there is a massive pile-up of household garbage.

“I am demanding a site visit from the NSWMA, with a view to dealing with the matter in an expeditious manner,” Abrahams said.

In the Angels division, sitting councillor Patricia Harris said there used to be a timely collection of household garbage, but for the past several months, this has changed. She is calling for a speedy resumption of this schedule to alleviate the pile-up currently being experienced by residents.

Meanwhile, public cleansing manager for the NSWMA in charge of St Catherine, Andrew Gooden, said the garbage collection problems, especially in the Linstead, Bog Walk and Ewarton communities, were compounded by not having enough dump trucks to deal with both commercial and residential waste arising from the festive season.

“We are not where we want to be for the new year. We will be collecting commercial waste at nights in the Linstead, Bog Walk and Ewarton communities, and household garbage during the day. This, we think, will allow us to deal with the residential waste in a more efficient manner.”

Gooden revealed that the garbage collection entity will be putting an additional garbage truck on the road to better serve these areas.