NEW LAWS are being drafted to make it easier to prosecute litterbugs and illegal dumpers.

Acting general manager of the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA), Stanton Alleyne, said at a town hall meeting at Lester Vaughan School, St Thomas, last Sunday that the Sewerage and Solid Waste Project Unit of the Ministry of Health was working on it.

While not disclosing too much because it was still in the draft stages, he said the new legislation would include a special court to deal with the issue and fines.

He also told the audience that although they worked with the police and environmental health officers to enforce the rules, he did not think the police should be the enforcers. He said he thought it was unfair to ask lawmen to police illegal dumping because of all the other things they had to do.

He put forward the idea of having litter wardens or giving environmental health officers the power to deal with some of the littering laws that existed or were being proposed.

Problem

On the issue of garbage in The City, the acting SSA general manager said the alleys were a problem as well as Swan Street. He added the large plant pots were really litter bins and should be removed.

Alleyne said The City was cleaned 13 times a week, twice during weekdays but once on a Sunday. He noted there was a plan to place three stationary compactors in The City – in the car park adjacent to Cave Shepherd, in the police car park by Central Police Station and another in High Street.

Alleyne is urging consumers to be selective about what they bought because the packing from a new appliance or piece of equipment usually ended up in the Mangrove Pond Landfill in St Thomas.

He also said that everything from dead dogs to glass bottles were dumped there.

The Barbados Labour Party's St Thomas branch hosted the meeting themed: Illegal Dumping In St Thomas – The Role of Government And Residents In Halting This Process. (DS)