Help for community and mentally ill resident

One close-knit Christ Church community can now rest easier during the night as their prayers have finally been answered in respect of a highly unusual situation.

The issue in question stems from the actions of one particular resident of Maxwell Hill Road, who suffers from a mental illness that compels her to collect garbage near her residence. The hoarding of garbage however is extreme in nature with the resident collecting litter and debris from almost every property in the community during the early morning hours for almost the last three years.

When a team from Barbados TODAY visited the site yesterday, members of the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) were hard at work trying to dismantle the huge mountains of junk from the area. The SSA’s public relations Officer Carl Alf Padmore was on the scene during the morning as work got underway and spoke briefly about the collective effort that led to relief finally being delivered to the residents.

“Today is a relief for [the] people of Maxwell Hill and surrounding areas. What you are witnessing is an operation after a number of consultations between the Ministry of Health, the constituency office of MP Ralph Thorne, Q.C. [and} Member of Parliament Adrian Forde, who at this time is also the Minister of the Environment and Natural Beautification. We came upon this story after community activist Adrian Donavan would have highlighted where a lady during the early morning, would be removing waste from persons’ bins from other areas, and bringing them here. What she actually created were more or less three big mountains,” Padmore explained.

With the huge volume of garbage having been dumped in the relatively small area, the SSA had to finalise logistics over the last few months in order to source the machinery and general equipment needed to undertake the large task.

“From the perspective of the SSA, right now we have bobcats, and three trucks ferrying this waste to our landfill. This operation should take a couple days, but what we are pleased about, is that the residents that are here are smelling that sense of relief because this would have been on their minds and in their sights for well over a year,” he said.

Cameron Vickery has been a resident in the area over the last six years and was pleased about the removal of the refuse finally getting underway.

“During the last three years we have been affected by the [resident] dumping stuff. Right now, there are a lot of flies, rats and mosquitoes everywhere, so I am glad the Government is finally doing something about the situation here,” he said.

Community activist Adrian Donavan explained that the Ministry of Health and Wellness, along with MP Ralph Thorne, Q.C. and MP Adrian Forde, who are in charge of the constituencies of Christ Church South and West Central respectively, have already begun taking steps in assisting the resident with her mental health issues. (SB)