Councillor for the Spring Garden Division of the St. James Municipal Corporation, Dwight Crawford is calling for the Retirement Landfill, located just outside the city of Montego Bay to be relocated immediately.
Councillor Crawford who made the call at the recent regular monthly meeting of the STJMC, said the dump has become a major source of concern and embarrassment fore Montego Bay, given the myriad of illegal activities to include frequent fires that are taking place at the facility.
“The constant fire at the Retirement Landfill is unacceptable…Persons who live in the Granville and Spring Garden Divisions have been suffering from the smoke which is so think a knife can be used to cut it…It is clear that what is happening at the Retirement Landfill is untenable. Recommending to the NSWMA to immediately implement t a research aimed at relocating the facility. The Landfill is too far gone for more rehabilitation work to done…and the facility should be relocated in an area far away from the City of Montego Bay where the operations can be conducted securely and in accordance with good solid waste disposal management”, Councillor Crawford stated.
He said with Montego Bay proudly wearing the tag of being the fastest growing city in the Caribbean, is even more reason for the Landfill to be relocated on lands far away from the city’s mainland.
Councillor Crawford said “Montego Bay is the fastest growing city in the Caribbean and therefore I am asking the NWSMA to start looking at some abandoned cane lands where nobody lives for the facility to be relocated. We are drawing materials from as far as Westmoreland, Hanover and Trelawny there is no reason for the dump to be at the doorsteps of the fastest growing city in this hemisphere…It can be relocated”.
Meanwhile, Councillor for the Granville Division, Michael Troup told the meeting that despite the efforts to extinguish the recent fire at the Retirement Landfill, fire continue to burn at the facility, and that citizens are planning to take legal actions against the Solid Waste Management Company.
He said “there is a group of citizen in the Retirement/Granville area who have engaged the service of a Lawyer to represent them as they seek compensation for the suffering and harm which they have been subjected to as a result of the stench and the resulting smoke from fires at the Landfill…The citizens and their lawyer are putting their case together and very soon action could be taken against Solid Waste”.