National Solid Waste Management Authority Clearing Roads of Debris

The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) has stepped up its operations and has been working to clear main roads and other public places of debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan.
Chairman of the NSWMA, Alston Stewart, told JIS News that employees had been working additional shifts, while tipper trucks have been deployed across the island.
In addition to the teams conducting normal residential and commercial collections, special teams had been organized, working tight shifts, to remove the pile-up of solid waste.
“We will work as late as is possible as long as it is safe to get this clearance done. We have given ourselves a target of Friday to remove all the obvious solid waste debris from the storm from public places. It’s an ambitious target and we hope to make it. If we miss it, we will move ahead and push for the week-end and early next week,” Mr. Stewart stated.
The tipper trucks, he noted, were properly identified with NSWMA stickers. The Executive Chairman pointed that as of Saturday, (Sept. 11) the Authority had resumed collection, prioritizing town centres and residential communities, using compactors where access allowed.
Mr. Stewart used the opportunity to warn that the NSWMA had not authorized anyone from the solid waste organisation or any agents to charge persons for collection services. “We are not providing a service of cutting up (trees) for anybody and we are not charging for removal,” he reiterated.
Mr. Stewart explained that the Authority did not have the resources to go onto personal properties to cut up trees, but would remove the debris free of cost, once persons did the cutting and left the material outside their gates where it could be collected. The NSWMA has also been assisting with the clearance of roadways that have been blocked by trees.
He implored residents not to contaminate hurricane debris with regular household solid waste “because we have to make a selection when we are on spot and the compactors cannot take up the bulk items”. Mr. Stewart advised persons to containerize normal household solid waste, which would be collected during normal operations. Bulk items will be collected by open back trucks.