Stop abusing our network of waterways
JUST LAST month, on Labour Day, May 23, Jamaicans set about refreshing and preserving various structures in their communities under the theme ‘Restore, Preserve, Beautify’. These words also resonate strongly with the theme of Solid Waste Day – ‘Better Solid Waste Management, Healthier Jamaica’.
Improved solid waste management is a comprehensive, far-reaching responsibility. Most certainly, the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) has a duty to collect and process household waste. However, the NSWMA is actually the second point of action in the chain of better waste management. The first point of action is you, the Jamaican adult, the teenager, the child who, respectively, works, who goes to school, who uses the roadways, and so on. Your decision about whether to dump waste in drains and gullies, or through the windows of vehicles, or to toss it onto the street is the first clear indicator about the potential success of the Government’s efforts to create a healthier, more beautiful Jamaica. In this regard, I cannot overemphasise the message that we must simply stop abusing our network of waterways. We cannot expect any form of sustainable improvement when we decide, at the individual and community level, to convert drains and gullies into huge garbage skips, and fill them repeatedly with refuse, irrespective of the number of times they are cleaned. This was one of the painful lessons taught, yet again, during the passage of the recent rains. I urge every citizen to cease and discourage the practice of dumping household and industrial items in our storm-water removal infrastructure.
SENSITISATION EFFORT
It is well known and universally accepted that improved levels of education result in higher levels of economic growth within countries and within regions. It is with this and other considerations in mind that the NSWMA will be
embarking on a special sensitisation effort to demonstrate the most efficient uses to which household waste can be put, as well as the best means of securing any remaining material for turnover to the NSWMA collection teams.
The observance of Solid Waste Day is a reminder that a clean, healthy environment, created and preserved by a responsible citizenry, is critical to the achievement of Jamaica’s Millennium Development Goals, and to the objectives of Vision 2030, a critical mark in time
that is just over 12 years and six months away.
If Jamaica is truly to be the place of choice for people to live, work, raise families and do business, then it must be a clean, orderly and healthy country. The National Solid Waste Management Authority is doing its part. Additional garbage trucks are being procured and it is hoped that, beginning this financial year, additions can be made to garbage collection schedules.
I urge you to do your part, in the true spirit of community, to create and preserve a healthier Jamaica, for all of us. DESMOND MCKENZIE Minister of Local Government and Community Development