Former minister of the Environment, Senator Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo, has berated Barbadians for continuing to litter the island’s streets and gullies and has called for greater education regarding individual management of solid waste.
Leading debate in the Senate today on a Resolution to approve the compulsory acquisition of 16 acres of land at Vaucluse, St Thomas for the purpose of waste disposal and the expansion of the Mangrove Pond landfill, Byer-Suckoo said the landfill currently receives 1 000 tonnes of garbage daily and the country simply could not continue to allow garbage to be disposed willy-nilly.
“It is not appropriate to just take garbage in this the 21st century and throw it into gullies…it really frustrates me when I walk through the gullies [in St George] and see that people are still in the habit of throwing garbage in gullies, and all kinds, not just household biological waste but we see fridges, stoves, sofas. There are also long stretches of road that don’t have any houses and if you drive along them you’d see the occasional washing machine,” she stated.
She said not only was this unsightly but fostered mosquito breeding grounds and sites of toxic materials from batteries, air-conditioning units and other appliances, which meant that Barbadians needed to be better informed on the environmental impact of such dumping.
“We have no reason to be taking our garbage and throwing it along the roadside and littering the gullies….We can’t risk taking some of our tourists into some areas because of the way Barbadians are wantonly throwing garbage in gullies. That is not good enough!,” she lamented.
