Belmont resident says neighbourhood has been reduced to ‘cooping’ garbage truck after waste is uncollected for weeks
Residents in the Belmont community are complaining that, for over three weeks now, their garbage has not been collected.
One resident tells REAL News that their collection day is Tuesday; however, up to yesterday, February 14, garbage receptacles remained full to overflowing as, once again, the garbage truck failed to show up.
She says some householders have resorted to putting cement blocks or other heavy objects on the lids of their bins to hold them down and prevent some of the waste from spilling over.
However, she says, she has not put into the garbage anything that will attract animals – for fear that stray dogs would get to her bin and topple it over.
Further, in order to lessen the garbage pile-up, the Belmont resident says she has cut down on the number of things she uses on a daily basis, whether to cook or for other household duties.
The woman, along with her neighbours, is wondering whether the waste-haulers are not being paid, again, as they are at a loss, otherwise, to understand why the garbage is not being collected.
At present, she says, residents are “cooping” the garbage truck, and at every sound of a large vehicle they rush to their windows to see whether it has turned up.
According to the woman, they have now gone from cooping water to cooping garbage trucks. If this is the “Next Level” of which the Antigua Labour Party spoke, she says sarcastically, then they are on track.
The Belmont resident says the situation has gotten more than ridiculous now and urges the Government to pay the contractors so they can do their jobs.
In December 2022, the Cabinet agreed to transfer to the National Solid Waste Authority (NSWMA) the sum of $500,000 to pay some of the monies owed to the Authority’s contractors.
At the time, some of the affected haulers scoffed at the announcement, pointing out that individual contractors were owed millions of dollars; hence, the sum would do very little for very few.
