JET disappointed by carnival clean-up

FOLLOWING CARNIVAL day in Jamaica (Sunday, April 28, 2019), the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) received numerous complaints regarding the poor management of solid waste along specific sections of the road march routes. Several roadways in the Corporate Area – namely, Lady Musgrave Road, Trafalgar Road and Waterloo Road – were left littered with garbage after the day’s events.

JET was extremely disappointed in the state of the streets of Kingston on Monday morning (yesterday), which indicates a lack of coordination among event promoters, band leaders and the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) to ensure that the garbage generated on carnival day was adequately managed.

Despite efforts by JET, through the Nuh Dutty Up Jamaica campaign, to remind revellers to ‘Nuh Dutty Up Di Road’ on carnival day, the sheer magnitude of the event – over ten thousand revellers and thousands more spectators – would have required that significant capacity be invested in solid waste management systems to ensure adequate clean-up after the event. It appears that these systems were either poorly designed to begin with or had broken down during this year’s carnival activity.

There have also been numerous reports received by JET over the carnival season of event venues being left littered with trash, and carnival day appears to have been a culmination of this poor solid waste management.

Each stakeholder has its own important role to play in

ensuring garbage is adequately managed after any large event. Promoters have a responsibility to ensure that clean-up teams with adequate capacity are contracted to clean up after their events, and that there are waste receptacles available where patrons can dispose their garbage. Patrons have a responsibility to reduce the amount of garbage they generate, and ensure whatever waste they produce is placed in the appropriate receptacles.

ENFORCE ANTI-LITTER LAWS

The GOJ also has a vital responsibility to enforce antilitter laws, ensuring that party permits, and entertainment licences require promoters to clean up immediately following an event. National Solid Waste Management Authority and parish council enforcement officers should be deployed to monitor event activities to ensure compliance; failure to adhere to these requirements should result in enforcement action being taken against the relevant culprits.

JET observed several teams immediately following the carnival road march feverishly cleaning up the garbage left by revellers; however, it is apparent that much more needs to be done to ensure that streets are cleaned up in an efficient and timely manner following subsequent stagings of carnival in Jamaica.

Kingston should not be waking up to the mess left by carnival in the future.