HANOVER, Jamaica – Prime Minister Andrew Holness says his administration is to launch a national clean-up of communities.

“I want to also take this opportunity to say that the Government is contemplating a programme of national clean-up for communities,” stated Holness during his address of an unveiling of a life-size statue of National Hero SirAlexander Bustamante in Hanover on Friday.

Holness argued that while aspects of the programme will see money going to municipal corporations, the country must move away from transactional duties.

“Whenever we say this, people think of the Government paying for clean-up work. And so it becomes…I see the mayor (of Lucea Sheridan Samuels) looking at me as maybe some funds will come to the parish council (municipal corporation). There will be some element of that. But the country can’t be so transactional that I have to pay you to keep your gate clean. The country can’t be that transactional,” Holness stressed.

“And as leaders, we have to start this conversation to remind people that they have a civic duty, a civic duty to keep their space clean. This is not to excuse the public duty on public sanitation and cleanliness. But as a people our dignity, our pride… it must be repulsive to us to see this in front of our gates… so, we are going to be announcing some efforts in that regard,” Holness explained.

The prime minister said a test run was started on Dyke Road in Portmore by Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Desmond McKenzie last week.

“We will be doing others but we want to engage the citizens and communities in trying to keep our communities clean. You know, that’s a part of our national project,” said Holness.

Anthony Lewis