NSWMA/WPM has taken 10 steps backward in Hanover, says councillor
RESIDENTS ACROSS the parish of Hanover are expressing displeasure with the performance of the National Solid Waste Management Authority/Western Parks and Markets (NSWMA/WPM), with councillors unanimously insisting that senior officers from the agency be present to address the next sitting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC).
The HMC monthly meetings are usually attended by NSWMA/WPM Public Cleansing Officers assigned to eastern and western Hanover. The May meeting was attended by Rosemarie Erskine, Public Cleansing Officer for Western Hanover.
It was the report tendered by Erskine, coupled with the numerous complaints received by the councillors from their constituents in the seven HMC divisions, which sparked the request for the presence of a more senior officer from the organisation at the next HMC monthly meeting.
The NSWMA/WPM report which was tabled noted some 35 districts across Hanover with a backlog of garbage to be collected. This was offered as an improvement in performance by that agency over January 2024, when there were 37 districts with backlog, also February and March, when there were 25 each month.
All seven councillors in attendance expressed concern about the health situation and the potential for disease outbreak in their respective areas given the increase in the rodent population, mosquitoes and the unsightly piles of garbage, among other issues.
“We (at NSWMA) have downtime on units (vehicles) that are assigned to our parish, so we have been operating with less than the required resources,” Erskine told the meeting.
She said further that the adverse weather conditions ‘is a challenge’ and was the reason that trucks collecting the waste across the parish are only making “one trip on most days”.
Erskine suggested more containerisation of waste by residents within the parish, with a view to having a more efficient collection process.
But, deputy mayor of Lucea, and councillor for the Sandy Bay division in Hanover Eastern, Andria Dehaney-Grant, was in no mood for excuses, noting that her division is ‘overflowing with uncollected garbage’.
She opined that the situation of uncollected garbage i n Hanover is now at the stage it was before the new trucks arrived. “I heard about us (the parish of Hanover) getting some trucks the other day. But it seems like we are not going forward, but I believe that we are making about 10 steps backward,” she stated.
“The NSWMA is asking people to containerise and hold their garbage, but are you (NSWMA) collecting the garbage on time? So you’re asking me to hold my garbage, I try to do so and the truck does not come for it, what do we do?” she questioned.
Dehaney-Grant said the present garbage pile-up is contributing to a general rat infestation, and expressed fears that even after the garbage is collected there will be an abundance of rats across the parish. This she said has been brought to the attention of the Hanover Health department (HHD).
It was at that point that the decision was taken to contact some senior personnel within the NSWMA/WPM for an update on the agency’s plans to minimise the garbage pileup across Hanover. It was said that of the 50 garbage compactors that arrived in the island in 2023, two were assigned to the parish of Hanover.
The deputy mayor made mention of the Claremont Primary school, located in her division, where consideration was being given to not re-opening the school after a weekend break two weeks ago, because of uncollected garbage on the compound.
It was at that point that the decision was taken to contact some senior personnel within the NSWMA/WPM for an update on the agency’s plans to minimise the garbage pileup across Hanover.
Erskine commented that the NSWMA is expected to get another shipment of trucks, which she hopes will help in remedying the situation, not only in Hanover, but across the island.