Cameras may join fight against illegal dumping

Illegal dumpers have targeted President Kennedy Drive again.

Months after the area was extensively cleaned, piles of garbage have once again been dumped in the St Michael community.

The action has drawn the ire of public relations officer of the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) Carl Padmore, who told Barbados TODAY cameras might have to be used on a more widespread basis to catch illegal dumpers.

Just over a week ago, Minister of the Environment and National Beautification Adrian Forde warned that Government would be adopting a zero tolerance policy with respect to illegal dumping around the island.

He made the comments at the launch of the Clean and Green National Campaign at Flat Rock, St George.

“It is of great concern to the SSA. This is an area which we clean at least three to four times a week. We would clean the area at 8 a.m. and by noon they would have garbage there again.

“The assurance I can give the public is that the minister did meet with the management of the SSA and we are looking in earnest at setting up some cameras so that we can catch the perpetrators,” Padmore said.

“In addition to that, as we look towards the Clean and Green new initiative, that is one area that will have our attention even more. We would like to encourage Barbadians to separate at the source still, so we will be going into that community to encourage them to do that.”

He said the SSA would continue to encourage persons to reuse, restore and recycle their waste, as it was not only better for the environment but also cheaper.

Padmore said with the current landfill only having five to six more years of operation left, it would cost over $30 million to outfit a new landfill.

He said it was unsustainable to spend that amount of money every time a new landfill was needed.

“Recycling, restoring and reusing are still our best options as a country. We’re too small to be generating so much garbage. There are also some areas in and around Bridgetown that continue to concern us so we will be looking at that. It is on our agenda,” Padmore maintained.

As it related to the SSA’s ability to adequately collect garbage around the island, he said there was currently a fleet of 31 to 32 garbage trucks.

He admitted though, that the recent rainy weather had impacted garbage collection.

“We are actually on point with it [collection]. There are still one or two areas that wouldn’t get the weekly collection and over the last couple days with the rain we would have had to suspend some collection days because we have to look after the workers and the equipment and we had some serious water in some areas,” Padmore said.

“So over the next couple of days there will be some disruptions to collections…but within a week we should normalize again.” (RB)