St James Health Department not duplicating NSWMA’s waste removal effort, says public health inspector

WESTERN BUREAU:

Sherika Lewis, the acting chief public health inspector for St James, says the recently launched waste removal initiative by the health department is not intended to replace or supplant the collection efforts of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA).

Lewis was speaking during Thursday’s first monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC) for 2026, where it was disclosed that 115 districts in St James were in backlog for waste collection during December 2025, though eight government units and one supplemental unit were dispatched for waste removal during that period.

“This initiative by the Ministry of Health & Wellness (MOHW) is a response mechanism post-Hurricane Melissa, and it is in response to poor sanitation and environmental health conditions that we have observed. The bulky waste removal initiative is a special programme intended to be a short-term programme, so it is not replacing the work of the NSWMA in any way,” said Lewis.

“The programme is augmenting the response of our collection in response to Melissa and the impact of the hurricane on our parish. It is not meant to be a replacement for the NSWMA and the work they are doing,” she added.

Lewis was responding to comments from Kenroy Gordon, the councillor for the Catadupa division, who expressed grave concern about the parish health department’s waste removal programme seemingly duplicating the NSWMA’s established role.

QUESTIONS ABOUT PROGRAMME

“I have seen a programme that has been recently announced through the MOHW that will be doing something similar to what NSWMA is dealing with, in terms of bulky waste removal. My question is, why are we duplicating the function? Because with the MOHW picking up solid waste, in my opinion, that is duplicating the works of the NSWMA,” said Gordon. “You are asking the entity to run, but at the same time you tie their feet, and when they trip, you find somebody else to do the task because you say they cannot manage.”

In December, the St James Health Department announced that it was arranging to rent 15 garbage trucks and two loader vehicles to carry out waste collection across St James. The move was in response to rising concerns about the NSWMA’s failure to collect garbage in several communities, both before and after the passage of Hurricane Melissa on October 28, 2025.

As it relates to vector control in the parish, Lewis told the meeting that in order to ensure the success of the health department’s $50-million vector control programme, bulky waste must be removed in order to reduce the number of breeding sites for mosquitoes and rats.

“The situation in the parish is that there are a number of breeding sites for mosquitoes as well as rodents. To ensure that the programme is successful, we are not only going to treat the issue with our insecticide and rodenticides, we have to eliminate the breeding sites as well, plus do bulky waste removal,” said Lewis.

Roxanne Hayles, public cleansing inspector for the NSWMA’s Western Parks and Markets Limited, told the meeting that the entity’s waste collection efforts in St James have been hampered by blocked roads and persistent illegal dumping of post-hurricane waste.

“With respect to our challenges, blocked roads due to breakaways, fallen trees and utility poles make some communities inaccessible to our sanitation teams,” said Hayles. “There is also an increase in non-compactible waste being illegally dumped on major thoroughfares and town centres, plus the continuous dumping of hurricane debris in areas that have already been cleared, as well as low-hanging wires in areas such as Lilliput, Glendevon, Bottom Pen, Bogue Hill, Barrett Town, Cassava Walk, and Copse.”

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com