EVERY INDIVIDUAL, and every entity that depends on individuals to make decisions and take action, will make mistakes. That’s a given, and it is based on the imperfections of man and the complex nature of the environment within which he operates.
It is when these individuals or organisations display a propensity for making the same types of mistakes over and over that the sympathy and understanding of those they are supposed to serve is eroded.
There are two state entities in Barbados whose level of performance put them squarely in this category – the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) and the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA).
But it is the SSA that receives our focus today largely because, in our opinion, those who are responsible forits policy direction and operations seem intent on takinga path similar to the BWA, apparently oblivious to theerosion of public confidence the latter has suffered.
The shortage of compactor trucks to collect garbage from our streets and the almost total absence of tractors to operate the Mangrove Pond landfill are not new. And while the shortages did not start with the current Democratic Labour Party administration, the deterioration under current Minister of the Environment Dr Denis Lowe has been nothing short of astounding.
Each day the SSA can barely manage ten working trucks on the roads in an environment where it needs about three dozen. There are districts that require two collections per week, but where residents would be happy with one. Unfortunately, seeing a truck every two weeks has become the norm.
Depending on the intensity of public outcry at the time, the reaction of the minister or others in the Government has ranged from: We need more trucks; we are going to buy more trucks; we need to fix the trucks that we have; we don’t have money for new trucks; we are studying the situation; Bajans generate too much garbage; householders need to separate and compost; partial privatisation is a sensible option, to privatisation is not an option – and on and on it goes.
But here’s the rub: While we continue to fail miserably as a country in the management of our garbage situation, construction continues at full pace on a new five-storey office building for the SSA at Vaucluse, St Thomas.
The SSA can’t get money to buy trucks, when there is not a sane Barbadian alive who can plausibly argue that they are not absolutely necessary, but the Government can find $29 million to build a new headquarters to house the officials who can’t seem to successfully execute their mandate of seeing that the island’s garbage is collected and appropriately treated.
It would appear they are following the BWA’s rulebook. That agency also built a spanking new multi-million-dollar headquarters in the midst of the island’s worst water management crisis ever, and even while its executives sit in their new ivory tower, residents in St Joseph consistently can’t get water to flow through their taps.
Defenders of the BWA have argued that the money used to build the new headquarters in the Pine was for a specific purpose and could not have been used for new mains, pumping stations, to drill wells and other similar operational needs. We are sure the SSA would want us to accept that the money available for a new building was for a specific purpose as well and can’t be used to buy trucks, tractors and spare parts.
What it tells us is that there are people in keydecision-making positions in this country whose priorities are all screwed up. Any SSA or Government official who can justify an office building over garbage collection equipment would seriously need to have his or her head examined.
Dr Lowe said in January 2014 at the ground-breaking ceremony for the new building, that the occasion marked “the beginning of modernisation” for the 45-year-old SSA. If, however, its performance today is an appropriate measure, then the SSA is closer to what it was in 1969 than it is to being “modern”.
Under the circumstances, we have a single question for Dr Lowe at this time: How will housing all the SSA’s workers together under one roof bring relief to Barbadians who can’t get their garbage collected; or even for the same workers who can’t get working trucks to perform their duties?
