MORE GARBAGE is being picked up from the streets with seven additional trucks now at the disposal of the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA).
Chairman of the SSA, Senator Rudy Grant, told the DAILY NATION yesterday the new trucks – in addition to the two Japanese trucks brought in last January which cost over $600 000 each – were introduced on a phased basis over the past two weeks. The smaller trucks were being deployed to Bridgetown and other St Michael areas which had relatively small streets.
“The Authority has also been able to utilise social media in a big way, where updates on collections . . . have been provided to the public on their website,” Grant said. “That has allowed us to improve our collections across the island and be more efficient.” The chairman added that most of the new trucks were servicing areas in St George, St James, Christ Church, St Philip, St Peter and St John.
Public relations officer Carl Padmore revealed that the SSA now had 20 trucks in service. He was speaking at St Giles Nursery School yesterday following the launch of a recycling project entitled Preserving Our Environment For The Future Of Barbados.
In recent years, the SSA has been faced with several challenges, including a reduced fleet and vehicle maintenance. Padmore said when Government began the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme, the Authority cut back on paying overtime, which contributed to the garbage pile-ups islandwide. “Now, we are actually levelling out in the collection. We would have been hampered by the non-payment of overtime, bank holidays and the fact that we don’t do house-to-house collection on weekends,” Padmore added.
However, he said they were still concerned about areas in St Lucy and St Peter, as well as St John. ( BA/TG)
EATON SKEETE said the rebuilding
(right) of his home in Westmoreland, St James, was going smoothly.
(Pictures by Reco Moore.)
