SSA turns to public health officers to help deal with messy businesses

Store owners who are not cooperating with the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) in the proper disposal of their garbage are being reported to public health officials.
Public Relations Officer of the SSA Carl Alff Padmore said the authority was concerned that despite its appeals, there continued to be reckless garbage disposal around the island, particularly in the capital.
He said the problem of businesses in Bridgetown not disposing of their garbage correctly was exasperated by the actions of some homeless people.
“We still have concerns with store owners and we have had to report some of them to the public health officers, so it’s still a major concern,” Padmore, who made the appeal to businesses last December, told Barbados TODAY.
“We still have persons who live on the streets being [difficult] because they are rummaging through the waste and scattering it all over the street. We still have a problem with homeless persons taking cardboard from areas in order to make beds, and as a result, the place is becoming really messy,” he further lamented.
Padmore said the SSA was coordinating with public health inspectors in an attempt to deal with the situation.
“I can tell you that the health inspectors, especially the ones in Black Rock and Sir Winston Scott [polyclinics], have been working very closely with us to get a lot of the illegal dumping and these things under control,” he said.
The SSA spokesperson appealed to citizens to get their act together, as he complained that many Barbadians have an attitude toward garbage disposal that is “very unbecoming of good citizens in this new republic.”
“We have to do better,” Padmore asserted.
(SB)