Campaign Launched To Clean Up Montego Bay

An initiative, ‘MyMoBay Campaign’, spearheaded by the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was officially launched on August 11, at the Montego Bay Cultural Centre in Sam Sharpe Square.

It is aimed at restoring civic pride to downtown Montego Bay, by making it a cleaner and more attractive city, to spur economic growth.

During the launching ceremony, the Montego Bay Free Zone’s leading company, Itel Business Process Outsourcing Organization, made a contribution of $100,000 towards the clean-up initiative.

In her address, President of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Gloria Henry, said that despite the many initiatives launched in the past toward the cleaning up of Montego Bay, the “wanton reckless disposal of waste everywhere (continues), with no regard for the general aesthetics or civic pride of the tourist capital.”

“The MyMoBay Campaign is a city-wide project that will inspire and encourage community members from every corner of Montego Bay, to make the city cleaner, healthier and more attractive to citizens, visitors and investors,” Miss Henry explained.

She informed that the project will seek to bring together businesses, community groups, schools, government agencies and individuals who carry out a range of activities and programmes that improve the local environment, as well as initiatives that improve human capital in the process.

“We are appealing to each person to take responsibility for the wellbeing of our city at a personal and community level and in so doing, contribute to the national effort, ‘nuh dutty up Jamaica’, and create  and maintain the best city in the region,” the  President said.

Delivering the keynote address, Chief Executive Officer of Island Grill, Mrs. Thalia Lyn, congratulated the Chamber of Commerce for its “bold initiative” at cleaning up Montego Bay, and called on citizens of the city and parish to find common ground and work together, as “this objective can be achieved.”

“I believe that all the things we want to do to clean up Montego Bay and to bring back the city to its rightful place of beauty and cleanliness can be done. The law must come into play.  The law must have teeth, because if people are not held accountable for their actions (of polluting the city) and face strong fines, chances are this will never end,” she said.