West anticipating at least 10 new garbage trucks next week
Published:Friday | November 11, 2022 | 5:58 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Western Parks and Markets Waste Management Limited (WPM) is anticipating that it will receive at least 10 out of 50 new garbage trucks, which are to arrive in the island shortly to boost its capacity to collect waste in the western end of the island as health concerns mount over a backlog.
WPM is the western arm of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) and serves the parishes of St James, Hanover, Trelawny, and Westmoreland.
According to WPM Acting Regional Operations Manager Dramaine Jones, the trucks should be available on Monday, November 14.
“With the injection of the new trucks, which should arrive in another four days, we should be getting a minimum of 10 trucks, but I am expecting 12 of them. The first point of order for these trucks is to ensure that we go zone by zone within St James and clean the different areas before the trucks are dispatched to their assigned zones,” Jones said while presenting the NSWMA report at Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC).
“Approximately five of these units will be staying in St James, and these should assist in terms of ensuring that we have a clean Christmas season,” he added.
An inadequate fleet is being blamed for a garbage-collection crisis across the island, which has been a nuisance for residents and businesses, with garbage piling up even in major townships.
In St James, the number of districts seeing a backlog in waste collection has ballooned to 115 since October, up from 76 communities in September, and more than double the 42 recorded in August. The backlog is problematic for St James, which has had a history of rodent infestation due to improperly disposed garbage and food refuse.
“Over the October period, we had a total of five government units and four supplementary units that worked in the parish. The backlog is due to a number of reasons as we have several company units that are down as well as contracted units that have also experienced mechanical issues and which are down. We are affected by shipping in terms of getting the parts in on time to get the trucks up and running,” Jones explained.
Montego Bay Mayor Leeroy Williams said that the arrival of the new trucks is timely as there have been numerous complaints from citizens about the inconsistency in waste collection across the parish.
“Collection of garbage is the responsibility of the NSWMA, not the StJMC. As the mayor and chairman of the StJMC, one of my priorities is to ensure that the city [of Montego Bay] remains clean, and that is why we are in very frequent dialogue with the NSWMA and why they are here at this meeting,” said Williams.
The 11 garbage trucks that the WPM has had working in St James are fewer than the 20 units that would ideally be needed to effectively carry out the NSWMA’s waste- collection mandate.