I write, to engage those in authority, on behalf of the residents of Cedar Valley. We have an
ongoing nuisance problem with the dumping of garbage and concrete waste in our community.
We need immediate action to prosecute those responsible for this violation. I am appealing to the
Central Board of Health, the National Solid Waste Management Authority, the Minister of Health,
and the Ministry of Public Works, to either listen to us the residents of the Cedar Valley
Community or come up with strategies to address our issues.
We are law-abiding and tax-paying citizens. We exercise our constitutional rights in voting. We
manage and maintain our properties at a high standard. It is therefore difficult to accept that the
authorities would ignore our cries for help and intervention in eliminating the continuous
dumping of refuse and concrete waste in our community.
There are strategies which we feel can be used to eliminate the problem we are having.
- Set up cameras in strategic areas to catch the perpetrators. (This is obvious;y expensive and
may not be feasible at this time).
- Send wardens to check the area weekly and monitor, photograph and record any large
vehicles which could carry garbage.
- Erect signs in the areas where the waste is dumped. (Our community have already installed
one, yet the perpetrators ignore it and dump their garbage nect to it).
- Nominate or ask for volunteers from the community to check and report any violations
observed.
- Prosecute and publicise all violators caught, and create a public database for such offenders
in case they try to go to other communities to dump waste.
- Have regular programs and advertisement on radio and television, and all other media,
promoting the need to keep Antigua and Barbuda clean.
I have been asked to act as an ambassador for the Keep Antigua and Barbuda Clean Campaign.
While I gladly do this, I am noticing that there is an absence of consequences for the violators of
this initiative, and more so, I see the violation of the campaign in my own community with no
consequences. There should be an exhibition of more national pride in our country. Tourism is our
main industry and it is a competitive one throughout the Caribbean. How can we offer a unique
tourism product when the tourists are greeted with a dirty country, with waste and refuse strewn
along secondary and tertiary roads as vehicles drive by?
I close in repeating my appeal to the authorities for immediate, deliberate, and purposeful actions
in capturing and prosecuting the violators who are dumping waste in the Cedar Valley Heights
Community and the entire county, by extension.
To the perpetrators, please have some pride in our beloved county. STOP IT!!! I know that some
of you get paid to deliver the garbage to Cooks landfill, yet you refuse to take it there. Don’t be so
deceitful.
I am looking forward to some positive responses.
Very concerned citizen – Tru Patriot
Sir Richard B. Richardson – KCN, GCM
Ambassador At Large (Antigua & Barbuda
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…those who feel it, know it!
…those who know it, don’t give a shyt.
This problem of illegal dumping, may be new to this Community, but Ambassador, you can rest assured, that the Authorities are fully aware, of this problem for years, and basically haven’t don’t but so much.
It’s not a difficult fix! Management has to be the problem!
Your community has a neighborhood watch. Start watching and recording. If it’s happening all the time and in the same area then goodness me someone sees something.
Here is a suggestion Sir Richie.Get together with your Community.Have a meeting about installing cameras on in areas. Where the dumping is taking place.Engaged a company to installed those cameras.The cameras must be battery and solar operated.Get a price point for purchasing and installation.Then get back to your Community and hear what they say.It would be nice to see those dumpers on cameras and have the Police arrests their backsides.By the way when you installed those cameras.Make sure the APP is downloaded on all of those in the Community phones.So they could monitor the areas from anywhere in Antigua and or abroad.Good luck to you folks at Cedar Valley and beyond.
I don’t know which is worse. I visited Fort James and I couldn’t believe how nasty it was. Horse do do, stinking to high heavens, under every tree. Leaves and flies all over the place. Where are the people promoting tourism?
The people promoting tourism are upholding their end of the bargain. They’re getting the people here. It’s up to us….residents, Antiguans and visitors to have some pride and keep the place clean. We go to the beaches and leave our garbage there. Take a garbage bag with you and keep the place clean.
The same people who dirty the beaches are the same ones who will complain it’s dirty.
Thank you so much for this initiative!
Additionally to the above recommendations-
1) One program was having a success in fighting dog’s poop left on the streets. Neighbors created a map on a website they created for tracking new loads of poop and placing pictures of the dog’s owners and their dogs they were able to document. Shaming worked.
2) Also, I’ve read about a similar program when citizens were making pictures of people polluting on the streets and sending these images to the authorities. In a little while, a city got clean.
3) You can ask people not to dump, but until there will be no reinforcement and penalties, nothing will change.
4) Very important- There must be a trash anti-dumping law in place. Otherwise it is difficult to fight it.
5) Also there should be broadcasting of this law in all possible media and constant announcements of violations.
6) Very important- There should be many signs and advertisements reminding people that it is prohibited doing this. All signs need to be at the level of people’s eyes, bright in color, large, and without words (because not all people speak English).
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