Beginning January 6, 2003, the Department of Environmental Health Services and the Royal Bahamas Police Force will initiate a new surveillance programme in New Providence in an attempt to discourage, minimize and prevent indiscriminate dumping of garbage and other waste material that results in the pollution and degradation of the environment, Mr. Ron Pinder, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Environmental Services, has announced.
This new initiative of the ministry, in conjunction with the Royal Bahamas Police Force, would offer greater environmental protection, enhancement, maintenance and promotion, said Mr. Pinder.
“We purposefully make members of the public aware of this new initiative in advance of the programme going into effect in January, 2003, because we seek the full co-operation of the general public in promoting and preserving the health of the environment in the best interests of public safety and well-being,” he said.
“The public,” he added, “is hereby informed and reminded that Part III, Section 7, of the Environmental Health Act 1987 and Rule 13-1 of the Health Rules make it an offence, punishable under Part IV, Section 20 of the Act, to deposit or dispose of garbage and any other refuse material at any time other than at an appropriate, approved waste disposal facility.
“The indiscriminate dumping of garbage and solid waste material carries with it the penalty of up to $1,000 upon summary conviction of a first offence or a prison term of nine months or both such fine and imprisonment and up to $5,000 or one-year imprisonment for a second conviction or both such fine and imprisonment.
“The government of The Bahamas, through the Ministry of Health and Environmental Services and other agencies such as the Water and Sewerage Corporation, has provided facilities to accommodate members of the public, at great expense to the taxpayers, for disposing of garbage and other solid wastes, as well as liquid wastes, in a safe and sanitary manner.”
The Department of Environmental Health Servicesﾴs solid waste and landfill facility, located off Harrold Road, is open to the public daily, including weekends, from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Marshall Road derelict vehicle disposal facility is also open to the public daily between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., and the liquid waste disposal facility of the Water and Sewerage Corporation, located off Harrold Road, is open to the public Mondays through Fridays between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. and on weekends between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.
“We at the Ministry of Health and Environmental Services are satisfied that adequate facilities are in place on the island of New Providence to accommodate satisfactorily the sanitary and safe liquid and solid-waste disposal needs of the general public,” Mr. Pinder said. “We can see no justifiable need or reason or valid excuse for anyone to contravene or break the law in disposing of waste matter.
“Consequently, members of the public and in particular those persons who have demonstrated a propensity to dump liquid or solid waste unlawfully and indiscriminately are hereby warned and admonished to take notice that formal steps are now being taken to intensify enforcement of the law in this regard. Any person found engaging in illegal dumping activity will be prosecuted according to the law.
“We are not anxious and would prefer not to bring prosecution proceedings against anyone. But this new PLP administration, bounded by a sense of duty, remains committed to our responsibility to the Bahamian people. We are determined to carry out our mandate of improved environmental protection and quality enhancement.
“I am hopeful that we would get overwhelming public co-operation and support with this new initiative to come to realise our request for environmental restoration, environmental maintenance and environmental protection,” he added.
Mr. Carlton Smith, Chief Health Inspector in the Department of Environmental Health Services, said the department and the Police Department are aware that during Christmas time there would be purchases of new furniture and appliances for the homes, and though they are intensifying the programme in January, they would be on the lookout for persons illegally dumping old refrigerators and other appliances.
“The position is that we will put this new initiative into effect by carrying out night-time surveillance in a more formal sense,” Mr. Smith said.
“The police and ourselves will be monitoring particular areas on a consistent basis on a more sustained basis. So we will be on the lookout for those persons who might be tempted at this yuletide season to get rid of solid waste. But we encourage them not to do so. One of the things we would have done in the past, and we can stress it at this stage, is to encourage those persons who are purchasing furniture, appliances to consult with persons from whom they are purchasing to take the old ones at the same time and have them properly disposed of.”
There is a law within the DEHS that deals with abutments, said Mr. Lennard Miller, Chief Health Inspector in the department. He explained the abutment is that portion of a property thatﾴs between a private residence and a government road (a verge).
They will also be enforcing that law, said Mr. Miller. And he urged homeowners to take care of that portion and beautify it by planting grass and a few plants.
By Bahamas Information Services
