Arrival date for new garbage trucks uncertain

WESTERN BUREAU:

DESMOND MCKENZIE, minister of local government and rural development, has said he is unable to give a definitive timeline as to when new garbage trucks will be procured to ease the inadequacy in the fleet of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA).

McKenzie, who was on a visit to St James, Westmoreland and Hanover last week, said the procurement process for an undisclosed number of trucks has started.

“I can’t give the country that assurance as to when, but one thing I can say, the process has started … hopefully by the end of this calendar year,” McKenzie said last Thursday, while responding to a question from The Gleaner.

In recent times, complaints from residents in several communities across the island about uncollected garbage have been on the increase. The NSWMA has blamed the delays on mechanical issues associated with the current fleet of garbage trucks.

McKenzie noted that procuring new garbage trucks takes time and entails a specific process, because the manufacturer will have to build them to specifications, taking into consideration the country’s road network.

“These trucks are not something that you go into a showcase and take them out; they have to be built to specifications, and the process is well-advanced,” said McKenzie, who has portfolio responsibility for the NSWMA.

Until those new trucks are procured and shipped to Jamaica, the local government minister said his ministry will continue to partner with owners of private garbage trucks in an effort to mitigate the problem of collecting waste.

“We engaged over 300 private trucks during the Christmas season and we are still maintaining, not all, but some in the areas that are [over]populated, where there needs to be some more effort to collect the garbage,” informed McKenzie. “And we have put in place contingencies which have worked over the Christmas holidays.”

Better disposalof garbage a must

But the minister contended that while the NSWMA has responsibility to collect the garbage, residents also have a responsibility to deposit their garbage in a much better way.

“We can’t just say the NSWMA is falling down on its responsibility, we as residents also have our part to play,” he insisted.

Along with procuring the new garbage trucks, McKenzie disclosed that the government of Japan will be lending assistance under its Grassroot Programme for Human Security Project.

“We are getting two trucks from the Japanese through the grassroot programe. I had discussions with the Japanese ambassador last week on that matter,” McKenzie noted.

Last November, Audley Gordon, executive director of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), highlighted the acute shortage of reliable trucks, which, he noted in a Gleaner story, is negatively impacting the agency’s ability to efficiently collect garbage across the island.

At that time, the agency had a fleet of approximately 104 trucks, of which about 60 are considered to be reliable. He also noted then that a fleet of anywhere between 150 and 180 garbage trucks would be an ideal number to handle the daily operations.

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