By Kim Boodram

Copyright trinidadexpress

THE city of Port of Spain will be a cleaner capital in the coming months with the anticipated return of litter wardens, bins and trash carts.

Port of Spain Mayor Chinua Alleyne said focus is to be placed on a “Clean City” initiative in a bid to keep trash off the streets downtown and in surrounding districts.

Speaking at a news conference at City Hall yesterday, Alleyne said the Port of Spain City Corporation is seeking to use its unspent balance of $18 million to help fund the initiative, following an unsuccessful bid to access $3.8 million of its previous budgetary allocation.

He said focus was also being placed on tourism in the city, and he noted efforts to maintain the environment during times such as the cruise ship season.

Calling the city’s trash problem “unsightly”, Alleyne said garbage on the streets was also a public health concern which encouraged vermin such as rats.

The corporation is now seeking approval from the Ministry of Local Government to use its available unspent balance to act against littering.

Alleyne said the Clean City project will include the return of litter wardens to the city and environs, as well as trash carts operated by wardens using grabbers and other apparatus to take trash off the streets.

The public will also see the return of bins downtown and in areas such as the Queen’s Park Savannah and Nelson Mandela Park.

The Mayor recalled most bins were removed following a bombing incident on Independence Square 20 years ago, in which an explosive device was placed inside a bin. He said the relevant security details will be discussed and bins will again be placed in and around the capital.

The corporation is also again pursuing the containerisation of garbage, Alleyne said.

In an upcoming pilot project, the corporation will provide initial plastic bins to a number of residents and businesses in certain areas, at no cost to the burgesses. This is aimed at keeping trash bags off the streets, which are unattractive and accessible to vermin, Alleyne said.

“Part of this initiative will call for an amendment to the Public Health by-laws, which must be approved by the Minister of Health. The current laws speak to metal or metal-lined bins, as plastic was not common at the time the law was formed,” the mayor said.

The corporation has written to Health Minister Dr Lackram Bodoe on the issue and will be holding consultations with burgesses in areas including Tragarete Road, Ariapita Avenue and Woodbrook.

Alleyne said the return of bins to the city and the containerisation project will include collaboration with the Solid Waste Management Company.

He said the return of litter wardens and carts will also mean relief to some in the city who needed employment.

Sabotage of garbage

The corporation is also looking to bring the full brunt of the law onto the person or people behind the “sabotage” of two trash compactors while it was already challenged by an ageing and limited fleet.

Alleyne produced a June 2025 report from the corporation’s Transport and Cleansing Department, which followed the discovery in May that diesel had been poured into the radiators of two compactors.

He said the oil in the radiators caused destruction, and the report deemed the incident a “malicious act of sabotage”.

However, he said, the corporation will be forging ahead with its Clean City initiative.

Alleyne said with the end of the 2025 financial year and the expectation of the 2026 national budget being delivered sometime early this month, the corporation had concluded it was unsuccessful in its bid to access a further $3.8 million via the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) allocation for 2025.

Alleyne said the corporation’s existing fleet is a decade old, and acquiring and replacing vehicles such as trash compactors could take eight to ten months.

The initiative would also see the corporation looking to acquire motorised street sweepers, which will work on schedule so as to not affect the flow of traffic.

CEPEP-related issues

Highlighting another challenge facing the city, Alleyne said the corporation has been flooded with complaints of overgrown bush and unkempt public spaces since the termination of CEPEP contractors in June.

He said, however, some relief is ahead in the coming weeks as a few contractors engaged by the corporation for the maintenance of some public spaces will be redirected towards services usually performed by CEPEP, including the cutting of grass.

He said CEPEP’s services in this area were significant and the corporation was not given funding to assume responsibility for landscaping work previously done by the programme.

According to Alleyne, several contractors engaged by the corporation have worked every weekend over the past few weeks to maintain spaces, including parks and cemeteries. These contractors will soon be directed towards some duties previously undertaken by CEPEP.

Alleyne later complained persons from outside of the city were also coming in and dumping their rubbish.

Alleyne said the amended schedule would help ensure regular trash collection, while the fleet had to managed against ongoing wear and tear and other challenges.

He also called on the Government to complete the Centre for the Socially Displaced at South Quay. Work on the project, which was launched last year by the previous administration, has stopped, Alleyne said. He added the capital faced increasing numbers of socially displaced persons, and the centre was needed.

He said the corporation had tried to get an update on the project from Minister of the People, Social Development and Family Services Vandana Mohit, but is yet to receive an answer.

He encouraged members of the public to attend an open consultation at City Hall on October 27 at 5.30 p.m., as the corporation looks to amend its garbage collection schedule amidst challenges with its fleet.