Papine Market dump a stinking disgrace
TWO SATURDAYS ago, just as I was heading out to the weekly Ujima Natural Farmers Market in Hope Gardens, I got an instructive call from one of my friends. He wanted to make sure I’d seen a text he’d just sent about a post by @iamcarlenes on X: “The Papine Market stinks. Water running along roadway smells like sewage and garbage pile[d] high. Posting a pic would sick stomach but please send someone to look @MayorWilliamsJA”
My friend wanted me to write about the dump. I protested. I reminded him that I’d already documented in several columns my disgust about the dump that brazenly faces the main road. My complaints hadn’t made a scrap of difference. In my October 2019 column, “Papine Market stalls destroyed by KSAMC,” I noted that, “The market’s open-air concrete garbage dump is a complete disgrace. It seems as if garbage is not collected regularly. Every Friday and Saturday, the dump is piled high. If the KSAMC really wants to get rid of rubbish, the dump should be their priority, not the vendors’ stalls.”
I proposed a viable solution to the problem: “Some enterprising person should set up a composting business in markets across Jamaica. So much foodstuff goes to waste! It could all be recycled and turned into valuable fertiliser instead of adding to the high volume of solid waste that ends up in dumps. And valuable jobs could be easily created from recycling. It just takes imagination.”
QUITE A SHOCK
After I left Hope Gardens, I went to the Papine Market, after all. For the last four years, I’ve not been going there on a Saturday. I occasionally go in the middle of the week in an emergency. The dump was even worse than I remembered it. The mountain of garbage had overflowed on to the sidewalk. And the smell! It really can’t be healthy to buy food near that dump.
The Ujima market is such an inviting contrast. The garden setting is so beautiful. Not a dump in sight! The mission of the market, as stated on the Source Farm Foundation’s website, is “to provide a venue where farmers (St. Thomas, Kingston & St. Andrew and Portland), producers, crafters and artisans come together to provide a variety of fresh naturally grown (pesticide free) produce and related products directly to the consumer.”
I took photos of the Papine Market dump which I emailed last Friday to His Worship the Mayor, Councillor Delroy Williams and copied to several members of his staff. When I followed up with a call, I was told he was at a sitting of the Senate. I viewed on YouTube the recording of the mayor’s wide-ranging presentation, which included remarks on the issue of garbage collection:
“In response to the unprecedented global COVID-19 pandemic and external economic shocks, the administration had to take some tough choices. Every day the administration was balancing lives and livelihoods, critical versus critical services. To provide our doctors and frontline workers with the resources they needed, the government had to pause many nonessential procurements. Garbage trucks were one of the suspended initiatives.”
Why were garbage trucks seen as non-essential procurement? This decision was short-sighted. The mayor did concede that, “Efficient garbage collection systems can lead to remarkable improvements in a community’s quality of life and overall environmental sustainability.” He added, “But we, too, must play our role as citizens. The practice of throwing garbage wherever we want and creating dump sites at all points of the city and our communities must end.” Agreed! But the dump at the Papine Market wasn’t created by irresponsible citizens. It’s an essential service provided by the government that must be efficiently managed.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS
In response to my email, Mr Akeem Morris, director of market operations at the Kingston & St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC), i nformed me that garbage is collected on Sundays and Wednesdays. The dump had been emptied the day after I took the photos. But since Friday and Saturday are the busy market days, I suggested that Thursday would be a better day than Wednesday for garbage collection. But that, apparently, would not significantly reduce the volume of rubbish on the weekend.
Mr Morris reported that Papine Market has become a “central dumping point” for residential and commercial garbage. As he put it, “God bless the amount of garbage that actually comes from the market.” I suggested that since the KSAMC is aware of the fact that the Papine Market dump is seen as a resource for the wider community, there should be more frequent collection of garbage. I also proposed that the KSAMC should explore the feasibility of setting up another dump in Papine, away from the market. It is desperately needed.
With local government elections just around the corner, the issue of market management must be a high priority for candidates. A Gleaner editorial, “Parish leaders should debate,” published last Wednesday, highlights the submissive relationship between councillors and members of parliament of the same party: “This subservience is not totally without merit. Members of parliament (MPs) have direct access of some financial resources, via the Constituency Development Fund, which gives him [sic] leverage over councillors.”
Ms Venesha Phillips, former PNP councillor for the Papine division, crossed the floor in December 2023. She should now be able to secure funding to improve Papine Market. I sent the photos of the dump to both her and Fayval Williams, member of parliament for St. Andrew Eastern, where the market is located. Neither responded. Their silence raises this question: What’s the point of local government?