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By Halshane Burke
Mayor of Portmore Leon Thomas has welcomed the initiative to remove bulky waste and old vehicles from the streets.
The programme was launched in Portmore, St. Catherine on Wednesday.
Mayor Thomas says the municipality has been overrun with bulky refuse.
"We have suffered for a long time. We have served notices on [owners of] derelict vehicles, garages within the municipal corporation, but we did not have the tools to carry out the removal of these derelict vehicles. Now the agency is equipped with the tools to carry out these initiatives," he said, adding that the government chose "the right municipality to begin".
Minister of Local Government Desmond McKenzie, who was also at the launch, said the government will continue to provide the resources to dispose of old vehicles and appliances.
"We're going into the plains of Clarendon with the next move. We're going to be expanding this right across the country, especially in the parishes that were severely affected [by Hurricane Beryl]," he noted, as he urged Jamaicans to support the programme.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in his address at the launch, encouraged Jamaicans to do their part in keeping the country clean.
"When you drive along the roads coming in and you see all the plastic bottles strewn along the roadway, how did it get there? Somebody in the car, wind down the window, throw it out; somebody walking, drinking the water, drop it there. We cannot continue like that as a people," he charged.
"When it gets into the earthen drains, that prevents the water from moving through. So it's not just the trees that block the drain, it is the plastics. We have to take some responsibility, all right? You no longer need the fridge, you no longer need the tyre, NSWMA doesn't come to collect it because they never had the budget because they couldn't buy the truck? Well, don't just leave it there, punch some holes in it so that if water collects it runs out," the Prime Minister pleaded.
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