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National Clean-Up Committee Committed to Finishing the Job?.Says Ammar:

October 4, 2007

The Full Story

The National Hurricane Dean Clean-up Committee is committed to seeing to the completion of the clean-up campaign announced by Prime Minister Bruce Golding, according to Co-Chair of the National Hurricane Dean Clean-up Campaign committee and businessman, Michael Ammar.
Mr. Ammar noted that the National Solid Waste Management Agency-(NSWMA) had received funds and the resources to undertake a full clean-up programme throughout the island and that the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) will make its contribution to ensuring that the job was successfully completed in getting the country cleaned up after the devastation of Hurricane Dean.
He said that as the clean-up effort continues, the private sector would help to identify areas that are in need of attention and pass the information to the National Solid Waste Agency a well as assist in providing the necessary resources to get the job done.
Mr. Ammar was speaking yesterday (Oct 2) at a meeting called to evaluate the effectiveness of the weekend clean-up programme which saw thousands of Jamaicans from various communities across the island, supporting the call by the Prime Minister to clean up their communities.
The co-chair of the National Hurricane Dean Clean-up Campaign committee commended all the organizations involved in the two-day clean up campaign held over the period September 29 & 30. He noted that realistically, the job was really just beginning and that the Waste Management Agency itself needed more resources in order to be able to effectively undertake the massive clean-up job. Mr. Ammar said the various agencies charged with the job of handling garbage collection and the after-effects of natural disasters need to establish long-term plans to deal with crisis such as Hurricane Dean.
Mr. Ammar also called for a public education campaign to help instill greater sense of pride and rekindle community spirit among Jamaicans. He noted that some places which had been cleaned over the weekend, were littered the following day.
In his remarks to the meeting, Co-Chair of the committee, the Honourable Kingsley Thomas, commended the committee members for successfully completing the project in 14 days.
Mr. Thomas said that the committee members had in effect been assigned a task similar to the national Labour Day project which is usually planned over a one-year period, with a time line of only 14days in which to complete the assignment. He expressed his pleasure with the level of success experienced in the short period and commended the work done at the parish level.
Recommendations were made by representatives from the Social Development Commission, Hope 2007 and the NSWMA. Churches were asked to help inculcate better values, self respect, self-esteem, community spirit and co-operation among members of their communities.
In his closing remarks to the meeting, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth & Sports, Senator Warren Newby said the Ministry welcomed the recommendations. He noted the need for a collaborative effort to change attitudes from all quarters. The Senator commended the organizing committee in getting the job done at such short notice and said the Ministry would be calling on the members to continue to assist in the collaborative efforts to bring about the necessary changes.
According to Mr. Ammar, the national clean-up effort will be continuing over the next few weeks, until the job of getting the entire country cleaned up, has been successfully accomplished.

Last Updated: October 4, 2007

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