LUCEA, Hanover — Local Government and Rural Development Minister Desmond McKenzie has issued a warning that there is a clampdown coming for commercial entities that are not properly disposing of their garbage. At the same time, he also promised to outline, during his contribution to the sectoral debate later this month, how the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) intends to improve its services.

“I want to use this platform to send out a warning to persons who have the responsibility to make arrangements to dispose of their commercial garbage, who use the cover of darkness or some persons who are not so well up in their head, gi dem ah money and their commercial garbage to carry and dump anywhere,” said McKenzie. He was speaking at the launch of the ‘Paint the City, Paint the Town’ campaign in Hanover last week.

“I am giving a warning because we are going to clamp down hard on the persons who are failing to deposit their commercial garbage in the right and proper way. I will have a lot more to say on it because while we have a responsibility to collect the residential garbage, commercial garbage is the responsibility of those persons who operate their commercial business to make their arrangements to dispose of their garbage,” he added.

The minister noted that the NSWMA is capable of figuring out who the culprits are and has been prosecuting some commercial enterprises.

“In most cases, when we go through the garbage — because in order for us to know who the culprits are, the solid waste [employees] go through the garbage — they will find bits of information that give them an idea as to where the garbage comes from. We might not boast about it but many have been prosecuted for disposing [of] garbage in an illegal way,” McKenzie said.

He said the NSWMA is trying its best to improve its service. At the same time, he is also encouraging residents to be more disciplined in how they dispose of their garbage.

Last month,

Jamaica Observer West reported that the NSWMA was impacted by an approximate 62 per cent shortfall in the required Government-owned garbage compactor trucks needed to adequately cover the four parishes in western Jamaica.

As a result, Western Parks and Markets (WPM) Acting Regional Operations Manager Dramain Jones had expressed hope that new trucks would arrive by the end of the year and add to their limping fleet. He is hoping this will help alleviate the nightmare they currently face in trying to meet the demand of collecting residential solid waste.

While a minimum of 35 garbage trucks are needed to adequately service the parishes of Trelawny, St James, Hanover and Westmoreland, the WPM currently has 13 working Government-owned trucks in its fleet of approximately 020.

The Government had signalled its intention to purchase about 100 compactor trucks in the 2020/21 financial year but this was postponed due to a $90-billion shortfall in Government revenue in 2020 as a result of the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

On March 3, McKenzie told a standing finance committee that the Government had put aside funds in the 2022/23 financial year for the purchasing of 50 trucks which are expected on the island by the end of 2022.