THE ILLEGAL AND OFTENTIMES dangerousdisposal of refuse across Barbados has become so common that many of us are no longer bothered when we see it. Our cart roads, gullies and vacant lots nowattract illegal dumpers like flowers attract bees.
But the fact that it is commonplace and many a citizen is no longer bothered by it does not make it any less a danger to our national health and well-being, even to our economic viability as a country so heavily dependent on tourism.
The decision this week by officials of the Vector Control Unit of the Ministry of Health to compel an illegal dumper to return to the scene of his crime and clean up not just his mess, but that left by others, is the kind of response that should follow every such act. But it should not end there.
These callous and inconsiderate people only continue to threaten our health because they believe they can get away with it – and sadly, the volume of refuse scattered all around our country confirms that the majority do get away with their illegal acts.
A casual drive around the country suggests there are two clear components to this problem: individuals who don’t think twice about dropping the food and beverage containers they use wherever they are the moment they are empty; and commercial movers of waste who dump it by the truckload in the dead of night.
Both, in our considered view, present major challenges. In the first case, it is clear that far too many of us live lives of hypocrisy when it comes to our surroundings. We will spare no expense in ensuring that our immediate environment is clean, but think nothing about spoiling someone else’s.
This has to be tackled with a combination of education and enforcement, especially since children learn from the example of adults around them, and penalising the guilty alone will not impart the message of respect for the environment that we want to embedin the minds of youth.
Of even greater concern, however, is the greed of truckers who remove refuse from the homes of individuals and the business places of companies for a fee and then seek to maximise their profits by dumping it in the nearest cart road, gully or open lot, once they can do it undetected.
As a nation we have to show we are really serious about this by instituting penalties of such severity that operators don’t even want to take a chance. When authorities are going to offer the guilty the chance to clean up their mess, there is hardly a penalty in that. When for subsequent offences the penalty can be$5 000, that will hurt a tad, but hardly deter morethan the jittery few.
What’s now needed is the impounding of any vehicle caught being used to facilitate illegal dumping, with the guilty still subject to a hefty fine that in our view should begin at no less than $20 000. Our position is simple: if you are going to take the chance then you must understand that being caught will come with dire consequences and not a slap on the wrist.
Individuals do not dump truckload after truckload of construction rubble, thousands of coconut shells, tonnes of discarded vehicle parts, tyres by the score and dozens of discarded household appliances in vacant lots and side roads by accident. They do so with deliberate thought and selfish motives. Their aim is to avoid the tipping fee at the landfill and to save on fuel – and they do so at the expense of potentially grave harm to citizens, given the complications that can be caused by an exploding mosquito or rodent population.
It is time to strike back and to do so so firmly that the very thought of attempting such an act would drive fear deep into the hearts of those who would harm the rest of us for the sake of a few dollars.