By Carlena Knight
Residents in McKinnons and Cashew Hill communities are expected to benefit from an initiative being launched by the Department of Environment (DoE).
The Ways to Reduce Mosquitoes and Illegal Dumping campaign, which will be launched next Monday, will see the department employing methods to help residents of these two communities to reduce the number of mosquitoes in their area.
McKinnons and Cashew Hill were selected because they have been the focus of several projects undertaken by the DoE, which will be distributing mosquito traps to be uses indoors and outdoors.
“When we are distributing it in both areas, we are going to distribute one outdoor and two indoor per household. So, we are targeting at least probably 1,000 to 1,200 households in each of the areas. That is a vast amount of households. We are looking to roughly give out about 7,000 traps, maybe a little more than that,” Technical Director Vekash Khan explained.
The DoE’s Senior Environment Officer, Daryll George, revealed that alongside the distribution, there will be a number of other activities they will be conducting.
“We will be doing walk-throughs on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week and then we will have seminars for community members on Thursday and Friday,” he said.
“So, we will be working with a number of partners, to include the Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force (ABDF) who will assist in distributing those traps because distributing close to 3,000 traps is a big undertaking. We will also be working with the Central Board of Health (CBH), as well as with the [National Solid Waste Management Authority – NSWMA].”
The official launch of the initiative will take place at the St Andrew’s Anglican Church on Monday.
Meanwhile, regarding illegal dumping, George said the DoE will be working alongside CBH and other parties to ensure legislation that’s in place is enforced.
Over the past couple of years, many residents who witnessed illegal dumping have reported seeing the perpetrators doing so late at night, in an apparent attempt to avoid being recognised and subsequently held accountable.
George explained they will also be increasing educational efforts in these areas.
“There are a number of legislations that looks at areas such as fines, but we don’t want to go straight to the fines, so what we are really doing is the education part. We will also be working with CBH, with [the NSWMA] and with the communities to help enforce a lot of the legislation that is already in place, in terms of providing, for example, some cash rewards and other rewards for persons who are reporting illegal dumping.
“We are really hoping that through the education, we can encourage persons too, that ‘this is your space, dumping is going to negatively affect your children’s health, your family’s health’. We are going to encourage them first not to dump, not to litter, but then we will also be working with those agencies to report and provide incentives for persons who are reporting persons who are illegally dumping,” George said.
The Litter Act came into effect in 2019.
One implication is that businesses will no longer get away with discarding empty boxes on the sides of the streets in expectation that they will be collected as is. Another is that persons committing acts of illegal dumping could be fined up to $5,000.
