By Janelle de Souza

Copyright newsday

THE Port of Spain City Corporation will be buying new garbage compactors to the tune of $18 million to help address garbage collection issues in the city. That is just one of the aspects of the Clean City Initiative, with its mission to clean up the city for the benefit of visitors as well as residents.

During a press conference at City Hall on September 30, Mayor Chinua Alleyne explained the initiative will be multi-pronged. It will also include investing in a fleet of street sweepers, obtaining approval from the Ministry of Health to amend the public health by-laws for a containerisation pilot project, conducting public consultation on revising the garbage collection schedule, installing garbage bins in the central business district, expanding the litter cart programme, engaging contractors to address landscaping issues and redeploying litter wardens to address dumping.

Alleyne said there have been difficulties with garbage collection in the city because, despite spending over $2 million on compactor fleet maintenance over the past two financial years, the fleet’s reliability has not improved because the vehicles are over ten years old. Also, the city collected garbage in residential areas five days a week and seven days a week in some commercial areas, so they were being worked very hard.

In addition, in May, the city’s Transport and Cleansing Department suspected sabotage when motor oil was found in the radiator of two vehicles.

The city is now looking for approval by the Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government to purchase the compactors, at least ten, using funds from the corporation’s unspent balance account.

Alleyne also announced a public consultation on revising the garbage collection schedule in the northern part of Port of Spain, where the city’s vehicles visit so the existing fleet can be managed more efficiently. These areas include Cocorite, St James, Woodbrook, Newtown, Federation Park, Saint Clair, Ellerslie Park and Rookery Nook. The consultation is slated for October 27 at 5.30 pm at City Hall, and he hopes the new schedule will be implemented by January 1, 2026.

The city already has the funds to begin a pilot project on the containerisation of garbage, for which there was public consultation in January. The project will begin in the areas of Western Main Road and Mucurapo Road in St James, Tragarete Road, Ariapita Avenue in Woodbrook, Maraval Road and Charlotte Street.

“The initiative is aimed at bringing an end to the practice where persons would place bags of garbage on the pavement, place bags of garbage on the footpath, and instead, place that garbage inside of a bin that has a lid and that is sealed.

“Why is this important? For a few reasons. One, the bags of garbage on the pavement is just unsightly. It just does not look good. And as the council has a strategic focus on investing in tourism, and with the cruise ship season that is soon to come upon us, we have an interest in ensuring that the city is better presented.”

He said garbage on the road also attracts stray dogs, rodents and roaches, and the Public Health Department advised the council containerisation was a good way to reduce such vermin.

The corporation intends to provide a total of about 1,000 plastic bins to residents and businesses, depending on what can be obtained with its $1.5 million budget. But, in order for plastic rather than metal bins to be used, the Public Health by-laws, which have not been updated since the 1940s, have to be amended with the approval of the Ministry of Health.

He stressed the funds were already available in the corporation’s unspent balance account and only needed the Local Government Ministry to approve access to it.

“The next step that we were engaged in, in consultation with SWMCOL (TT Solid Waste Management Company Ltd), is to launch a recycling programme, so that the residents and the burgesses separate their garbage at home into plastics and organics and what have you at home, and we do house-to-house pick-up. So that this is the first step in moving us eventually into that direction.”

Another initiative was to install garbage bins in the city’s central business district, Queen’s Park Savannah and Nelson Mandela Park, and ensure they are properly serviced.

“Just about 20 years ago, there were a series of bombings in the city of Port of Spain, where bombs were being placed in garbage bins. And in response to that many of the garbage bins in these central business districts were removed. We are now 20 years since that occurrence, and the council has taken a decision to purchase and install garbage bins in the central business district.”

The Corporation also intends to expand the Litter Cart Programme. He said it was initially developed to provide employment relief on weekends and public holidays, but it will be expanded to include “litter picking,” or people picking up litter with a grabber every day.

Litter Wardens will also be redeployed to Charlotte Street and environs and in areas where there are dump sites. He said people from outside the city often dump their waste at a street corner in the city instead of going to a landfill, making an unsightly mess.

“We’ve given certain instructions to the public health inspectorate for the redeployment of all litter wardens and to use whatever enforcement authority is available to them under the litter act to bring an end to the series of dumping that is happening all across the city of Port of Spain, really by persons that should know better.”

Lastly, Alleyne said the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (Cepep) was doing a “significant amount” of work in the city. Because it is no longer in operation, many areas, plots and drains have become overgrown and many people are calling the corporation to complain.

Because the city was not allocated any additional funding for landscaping, the recurrent budget was tapped to hire contractors who have been, for the past three weekends, working to improve the situation.

He said they are currently working in green spaces and cemeteries, and will move into communities when they are done.

Asked about the socially displaced in Port of Spain, Alleyne said work had stopped on the new assessment centre on South Quay after the election.

The council had a meeting in September with the director of Mental Health Services at the Health Ministry to determine what authority the council would have to assist the socially displaced and use the Mental Health Act with mental health officer. But he learned the Corporation had no authority.

“But we have a significant interest because these people living in the city as well, and so we have a moral responsibility to do as much as we can to provide for them socially.”

He said he wrote to Minister of the People, Social Development and Family Services Vandana Mohit and got no response, but intended to write again to determine what services would be provided for the socially displaced in the city.