Unscrupulous ‘butchers’ using homeless to dump offal

Some people are using street people around Bridgetown to carry out their illegal dumping activities, prompting the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) to call out the worrying practice.

SSA spokesman Carl Padmore accused backyard butchers of employing the homeless to dump offal. The suggestion comes as sanitation workers visited the junction of Kensington New Road and Fontabelle on Tuesday, after receiving complaints from area businesses about a foul stench. Further investigation revealed livestock remains had been dumped nearby, he said.

Padmore told Barbados TODAY: “We did our investigations, and we are convinced that persons within a one-mile radius from here are engaging in backyard slaughtering, and we are concerned about that. We asked the Ministry of Health to assist in the investigations – we are also convinced that persons are paying [homeless people] to bring the stuff here.

“When you pay a [street person] to engage in this practice, or if you yourself engage in this practice, what it is doing is affecting the entire environment.”

Padmore further explained that when illegally dumped offal makes its way into the drainage systems, it not only contributes to flooding in these areas but also becomes a health hazard. He also reminded residents to dispose of household waste in the correct manner, as they too often wreak havoc on drainage channels.

“When you dispose of general household waste in this area as well and it’s not in a can, what is happening is, it too will make its way into the drain and cause a blockage as well, he said. “We want to ask Barbadians to take pride in their country…this concerns us.”

Sonia Outram, the SSA’s Reed Street Depot supervisor said the flagrant dumping of waste in The City has made life difficult for her workers, as they are often on the streets early in the morning to clear the roadways of garbage.

She said: “We work early on mornings, from 2-3 a.m. we are on the roads. We wash all of the streets, we wash all of the drains [and] sidewalks. It is very difficult to see that sometimes as early as 8 a.m, you have more garbage being put out on the same areas we just cleaned.

“You have vagrants pulling garbage bags open, and throwing all of the litter on the same streets that we have just cleaned. So it is really difficult on us and it is hard to know that we come out, do so much work, and then to see that when the public comes on the streets, it is dirty again.” (SB)