FRUSTRATED residents of Maloney Gardens want the contractor responsible for garbage collection in the community to provide a more consistent and reliable service.
This after residents say their garbage disposal problems have restarted.
Between last November and January of this year, the community faced a similar problem and several residents staged a complaint saying the removal of the large steel bins and the haphazard garbage accumulation and collection at the 12 car park locations across the housing development posed a health risk, especially to children and the elderly in the community.
At that time, the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) had partially resolved the issue and mandated that regular garbage collection would take place on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and a bulk-waste pick-up was supposed to happen once per month.
While residents said they did not have so many problems with the regular pick-up, but the bulk waste pick-up has not happened for about three months. They also emphasised that the steel bins too had never returned, and people were forced to continue throwing the garbage on the ground in the middle of the car park.
Speaking to the Express on Tuesday in the car park between Buildings 10 and 11, a man who identified himself only as ‘Daddy’ pleaded for help. ‘We need help for the children. Children going to school have to pass by this rubbish,’ he said, while stressing how close the mound of garbage and refuse was to the apartments where people lived.
He said the people living in Maloney Gardens were fed up and further criticised the way the garbage truck contractor had been operating.
‘We do not need a contractor to take up some and leave some. We need a contractor to clean. So, the children of Maloney and the people of Maloney can have a clean environment,’ he stressed.
‘Daddy’ explained that while the garbage truck had upheld the agreement to come into the community and pick up the garbage three times for the week, they only collected the bags and left everything else.
Peter Lewis, who sells poultry in the area also spoke with the Express on Tuesday and said the smell emanating from the refuse had begun to affect his business. He recalled that prior to the change of government last year he was working for the previous contractor who had a different garbage disposal operation.
‘Cleaning took place every single day and there was a big bin here. Everyone would throw their rubbish in that bin and people who had other old things like a fridge, they put that to the side. They parked up different types of trucks,’ he said.
He added, ‘Now all of a sudden just looking at this dump, you feeling sick. You do not even want to come down in the morning. People do not want to come and buy (eggs) because of the smell and the vibes. The whole environment is kind of depressing.’
He lamented that the conditions Maloney people have to live in could affect their health eventually. ‘After a while, this will get you sick,’ Lewis said, pointing out that the blowing wind carried the smell into the building.
A health hazard
MP for the area Camille Robinson-Regis (Trincity/Maloney), during a telephone interview on Tuesday, said she was aware of the problems facing residents and last week she did speak to the HDC, but the problem was still persisting.
‘They keep saying that they have a contractor who is supposed to be dealing with it,’ she said.
Robinson-Regis, who was also a former minister of housing, recalled that because of the buildings there were large bins placed at the location. She said after last year’s general election, the bins were removed and the new contractor did not replace them.
‘So, people just have to dump their garbage in the area where the bins were,’ she said, warning that it is now becoming a health hazard because residents were now complaining about an increase in rats and cockroaches.
She pointed out that a few months ago she was able to get the corporation to assist, but noted that was not under their remit.
Robinson-Regis called on the HDC to make it their duty to put back the bins for the community to use. She said it was clear the HDC under the current administration did not care about the areas they had responsibility for, ‘and obviously did not care if people got sick’.
Questioned about the situation when he was going into Parliament yesterday, Minister of Housing David Lee said he would look into it. Efforts to contact councillor for the area Stephan Wattley (Mausica/Maloney) yesterday, however, were unsuccessful.
