Clean-Up of Downtown Streets Began Dec. 27

Executive Director, National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), Jennifer Edwards, says clean-up efforts of the streets in downtown Kingston commenced on December 27 when trading had ended.

“We continue to do the cleaning and we are hoping to continue the clearance of the commercial activities, which took place over the Christmas season,” she told JIS News.

Citing  an article and photographs published on December  28 in a local newspaper showing piles of garbage on the streets of downtown, Ms. Edwards informed that the agency’s trucks did not have access to the area due to the heavy concentration of street vendors during the Christmas shopping period.

“We are aware that the downtown district area was converted into a vending area for three or four days leading up to, and after Christmas, and this resulted in the NSWMA trucks not having access to a number of the streets, including Beckford Street and Princess Street, because both sides of the streets were converted into vending areas,” she said.

She said that the information regarding the pile-up would have been obtained the day following the holiday, therefore when it was published, clean-up activities would have already started.

The Executive Director pointed out that this consisted mainly of commercial garbage.