As far as a St Philip resident is concerned, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) is powerless when it comes to environmental issues.
She arrived at this conclusion, she said, after spending close to seven years trying to get the EPD, the parish polyclinic, the Town and Country Planning Department and the Ministry of Health to do something about a construction business next door to her home at Sandford, St Philip.
The resident, who requested anonymity, said she felt as if she was living next to a dump and the situation was affecting her family’s health.
Pointing to old boxes, discarded appliances, heaps of dirt and other items on the adjoining land, she said she was finding it difficult to even breathe.
“The EPD came out here and tested the air quality three years ago and told me the test failed and yet they have done nothing about the problem,” she said. “I am here suffering with noise pollution, air pollution, rats, mosquitoes, everything and nobody seems to care.” She added that health inspectors had also at one point found areas on the property where mosquitoes were breeding.
“I understand they are running a business and I am not trying to close them down but can’t they keep their property clean. I see people doing this same kind of business in Barbados and I don’t see them having their place looking like this.
“This is an environmental hazard. I should not be living like this. I am not getting no help. Everybody just turn a blind eye.”
However, Winston Newton, who along with his brothers operates the business known as Newton Construction Company, said it was the complainer who was being a nuisance.
“This is a construction company and of course you are going to get dust, you are going to get noise, you are going to get garbage but we always clean up,”?he added. “It doesn’t make sense taking up a box here and there. We wait until the things pile up and carry them away.”
He said his family members occupied the majority of houses at Sandford and they were a peaceful, law-abiding bunch.
“Since she moved out here she has been nothing but trouble. She has called the Ministry of Health, Town and Country Planning, the police, everybody on us and they are all tired of her calling. This is our property and we are running a business place. We clean out here often,” he said, pointing to one of his brothers who was operating a Bobcat in removing some of the garbage.
He also claimed that the woman was not keeping her property clean since there was a lot of overgrown bush on her land.
When we contacted Anthony Headley, the director of the EPD, he instructed his secretary to tell us to contact Permanent Secretary Edison Alleyne at the Ministry of Health. Up to Press time there was no word from Alleyne.
