Jamaica Burning

BILLOWING clouds of acrid black smoke hung over the Riverton City landfill and nearby communities yesterday from fires believed to have been set by dismissed garbage collectors and the authorities warned of the likelihood of worsening problem of solid waste disposal in Kingston and nearby towns.That's the situation here in Jamaica. As beautiful as this island is, the majority of the population has little or no concern with the environment, until the consequences of their constant littering and arbitrary dumping affects them. For example, Jamaica has natural and man-made gullies that assist in leading storm-water to the sea. People who live near these throw, without second thought, all sorts of refuse into them. The storms come, the waters overflow the gullies and property is damaged. It is then one hears cries of "the government!" to fix the problem.

The problem, of course, is us. There is a distinct lack of recycling habits and facilities. There is an even greater lack of awareness of our impact on the environment, and on ourselves.

Help and organization tends to come from outside sources:

The Riverton City site has in recent years been transformed from an unruly and open city dump where fires burned almost continuously, to a structured and organised landfill, established with substantial funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

But the old sight of fires, thick and drifting black smoke and low visibility in the areas close to Riverton returned yesterday in the face of a NSWMA's firing of a trucking and garbage co-operative set up by people who used to work on the old dump, including scavenging for things to sell.
My brother once said to me that Jamaicans only can have a knee-jerk response...after the fact. It is only when something has reached almost terrible levels, that we start to think about what there is to do.

-Source Article: from the Jamaica Observer