The Tribune

By TAVIA AUMOITHE

RESIDENTS in several areas of New Providence are complaining about garbage piling up due to lack of collections this month, raising concerns about dangers to health and drainage systems, particularly with Tropical Storm Erika forecast to bring heavy rains this weekend.

People living in Englerston, Yellow Elder, Marathon and Sea Breeze have all reported issues of rotting garbage, overflowing dumpsters and piles of bags being left in the summer heat for the past two to three weeks.

One Yellow Elder resident told The Tribune yesterday that the problem had been going on for some time and that collections were only being made every two or three weeks and not as previous schedules.

The Department of Environmental Health Services (DEHS) confirmed yesterday that they had received complaints but said that they were working on fixing the issue immediately. A department official said the problems were difficulties with schedules and mechanical issues in all four areas and in Seabreeze additionally, there was one week when a road due for collection was missed and the error compounded the following week.

Glenys Hanna-Martin, the MP for Englerston, had also received complaints and blamed the density of housing for the problems, suggesting that the collection process should be speeded up. “These are high density areas,” she said. “The problem is being dealt with. I think DEHS is in need of an accelerated paradigm to deal with these communities.”

Earlier this week, Environment Minister, Kenred Dorsett said that the government had been forced to expand the outsourcing of services to private companies to maintain the collection services because of the poor state of publicly owned trucks. The companies are contracted by the DEHS to collect residential waste on behalf of the government on a month-on-month basis.

He said that he found the publicly-owned fleet of garbage trucks in 2012 in disrepair and the government decided to have them assessed by diesel mechanics attached to the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF).

“As a result of the continuous ‘cannibalisation’ of the garbage trucks and heavy equipment by stripping them of their working parts, the RBDF recommended the trucks be removed from the DEHS facility to enable them to conduct a proper assessment,” Mr Dorsett said in a statement. “That was done and the facility which currently houses the publicly owned inoperable garbage trucks and heavy equipment is being utilised as a storage facility at no cost to the public purse. Discussions are ongoing with respect to the future of the inoperable trucks and their use.

“The public should be aware that the management of DEHS contend that the main issue was that the previous administration purchased the wrong garbage trucks for the Bahamian climate and terrain. The management of DEHS advised the former administration to purchase Mack garbage trucks. Against that advice they purchased 16 ‘international’ garbage trucks. All of them encountered engine challenges and failures in a short period of time.

“Indeed, when I took office, there was a graveyard of international vehicles laid up and being cannibalised to repair the working trucks in operation. This state of affairs is what led to the government expanding the existing outsourcing of residential garbage collection, started by the former administration to the entire island of New Providence. The new programme created new entrepreneurial opportunities for Bahamians, more jobs and it has reduced the cost to the public purse and brought about certainty in budget calculations and estimates.

He questioned why the previous Free National Movement administration had purchased “the wrong garbage trucks against the advice of the technical staff of the DEHS and how those trucks ended-up in such disrepair in a short period of time under their watch”.