Solid waste agency had no financial provision for hurricane waste management

Head of the country's national garbage-collection agency, Jennifer Edwards, will today be able to tell the country how much it will cost to clean-up the mountains of garbage left by Hurricane Sandy which roughed up the island last week.

With debris strewn along many minor and major thoroughfares on the island, the clean-up work is expected to cost millions of dollars.

When contacted last Friday, Edwards told our news team that by the end of today she would be able to give the country an estimate on how much it will cost to remove downed trees and other debris left in the wake of the Category One hurricane that battered the island.

"Right now, I don't have a cost, but by the end of the day Sunday I should be able to reasonably say how much it will cost," said Edwards, the executive director of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA).

Assessing the situation

She added that the NSWMA's regional operations managers and public-cleansing inspectors were in the field late last week assessing the situation and preparing estimates for the clean-up work to ensue.

"They have been asked to go through their areas and see how many loads of debris are in their respective area," Edwards explained.

The NSWMA boss pointed out that the agency does not receive a budgetary allocation for clean-up work needed in the aftermath of a disaster, so it was not in her remit to set a ceiling on what the agency will be able to spend.

"When it comes to natural disasters I don't determine those things. I have been asked to prepare an estimate and pass it on to the national disaster committee through my parent ministry and that is what I intend to do," said Edwards.

She added: "This is money the Government will have to try and find from some place."

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com