Health crisis looms as Portmore residents dispose of garbage in lagoon

There is a health and environmental crisis developing in a section of Portmore, St. Catherine following the revelation that some residents in Edgewater have resorted to disposing of their garbage in the lagoon.

A resident of Edgewater, Rodney Davy, told Radio Jamaica News that for more than one month, no garbage has been collected.

Mr. Davy said some residents dump the garbage in the lagoon or pay to have it done.

"We have seen garbage trucks pass but they have not stopped so far.... If you go by [the lagoon], there are tons of garbage down there because people have to find other ways and means to dispose of their garbage," he disclosed.

Member of Parliament for St. Catherine South Eastern Robert Miller is appealing to the residents to desist from this practice.

"We understand that the state have [sic] a duty to collect your solid waste, but we encourage you not to litter our surrounding, not to damage our environment, because once you trash those garbage in the gullies, in the sea side, in the lagoon, it only affects us. We are the same taxpayers that will have to clean those gullies, clean those lagoons and when...the rain season will come upon us, it will flood us out," he warned.

Audley Gordon, Executive Director of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), recently said Portmore residents would soon get relief from the pile up of garbage.

While communities wait for this to be actualised, Alric Campbell, Councillor for the Edgewater Division in Portmore, has renewed his call for garbage collection to be the responsibility of municipal corporations.

"Certainly, we would not have any building on Half Way Tree road to maintain and hundreds of staff members to deal with, so our overheads would be minimal. Give us an opportunity to deal with the garbage collection on the ground where we are with the people. I call on the government to establish that right now," he pleaded.

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