Raising a stink - MoBay mayor takes NSWMA to task for failure to stop illicit garbage disposal

Claudia Gardner, Assignment Coordinator

WESTERN BUREAU:Mayor of Montego Bay and Chairman of the St James Parish Council, Glendon Harris, has expressed outrage at what, he says, are the illicit garbage-disposal practices by a large number of commercial entities in the resort town.

During an intense exchange at the regular monthly meeting of the St James Parish Council last week, Harris also upbraided the National Solid Waste Management Authority's (NSWMA) Public Cleansing Officer, Patrick Gilchrist, for not moving to prosecute the perpetrators. Gilchrist failed to provide information to the mayor relating to whether all the business entities in the parish had contracts to collect commercial waste generated by their establishments.

"Mr Chairman, every business entity in the parish should have a contract," Gilchrist said before beginning to comment on the legal aspects relating to waste management.

However, he was stopped mid-sentence by the mayor.

"That's not what I asked, Mr Gilchrist. I am asking if everyone of them has. I am not talking about should. I don't want you to go into the semantics. You have the responsibility to ensure that they all have it. I want to know if you have done your job to ensure that they all have contracts and go further to say, how are those contracts operated?" the mayor said.

Gilchrist said he was unable to state definitively whether all entities had collection contracts but that the possibility existed that they did. But this seemed to further aggravate the parish council chairman.

"Mr Gilchrist! Mr Gilchrist! Is either yuh know or yuh don't know. NSWMA is doing very well at this time. And I specifically ask this question to ensure that you keep that going, but there are some things that I am seeing on the street that indicate that there is a deficiency with your commercial collection," the mayor counteracted.

"This 'should' and the 'maybe' won't help us. What we need to move to now is for you to check your books. Check on the ground that all of them have it (garbage- collection contracts) and that it is being done in accordance with the law," Harris added.

Gilchrist, in response, said he would make checks as "businesses dispose of their waste in different ways".

"I will make an effort to research if these entities do have existing contracts and I will forward this information to you. I cannot say off the top of my head if they all have contracts," Gilchrist repeated.

"It is your responsibility to ensure that all of them have," Harris said. "And let me give you a background as to where I am coming from."

"I travel the streets of MoBay morning, noon, evening, night, and before daylight. At 6:45 p.m. one morning, I was travelling on St James Street and I saw six big 55-gallon garbage bags on the sidewalk. I scrutinised them and I could identify where they were from."

"I called the people and talked to them, and I am saying that a large number of the business entities in downtown Montego Bay try to blame the higglers and the poor people when it is not so. Those people, including restaurants, have their garbage, and as soon as they are locking up at night, they carry it and put it out on the sidewalk, or they give a 'coke head' to carry it to the nearest 'dump'. And we don't have any 'dump' in Montego Bay," the mayor said.