…community effort, community success

Last Saturday’s International Coastal Cleanup in and around Montego Bay was a truly memorable event.  First, it marked the launch of the Marine Park Trust’s new project to reduce marine litter at its source.  Second, it shifted a staggering amount of garbage from the North Gully corridor and downtown streets and beaches.  And finally, it showed what can be accomplished when Government and its agencies, private sector companies and associations, community groups and committed individuals band together for a common purpose.

Volunteers from Gully communities – North Gully, Albion Lane, Sligoville, Canterbury and Albion Heights – turned out in force to begin a job of cleaning and refurbishing that will continue through next spring.  Further along, NWA’s backhoe loaded trucks with muck and rubbish from the lower reaches of the Gully.  Marine Park volunteers, including several local school clubs, cleaned downtown streets at the mouth of the Gully.

Trash was counted, bagged and weighed.  The recorded results will form part of the Ocean Conservancy’s marine litter data base.  NSWMA had garbage trucks on the route throughout the day to take away the assembled waste – an estimated 20 tons of it.  Private cars and pickup trucks were also busy through the day, dropping off cleanup supplies (rakes, shovels, gloves and bags), as well as cool drinks for the volunteers (Thank you, CPJ!) and distributing 30 new rubbish barrels tagged with the clean-up slogan “A clean city is a healthy city”.

In support of the local Fisherman’s Cooperative, the Marine Park Trust also paid for waste removal to complete their own cleanup activities.

It was a good day and a great achievement, but it’s just a start.  From here, the marine litter project proceeds on two fronts.  Public education will aim to create a sense of personal and community responsibility for waste management.  The Cleanup Day effort from Gully communities (more than 100 volunteers) suggests that the right seeds are already there.  We just need to help people connect the dots between better waste management habits and safer, healthier lives.

To make the communities’ effort effective, we also need some public sector investment and effort.  The Gully itself needs sediment traps to be installed at key points, and cleared regularly.  The communities need proper sanitary facilities, probably including some communal bathrooms.  They also need somewhere to put their garbage, and somebody to pick it up.

The roads in these areas are often narrow and in poor condition.  Other areas are inaccessible by vehicle altogether.  Garbage trucks just can’t go there.  That’s not likely to change soon, so the trash has to come to the trucks.  This means setting up lots of small garbage containers that can be easily transported to large skips at the closest collection point an NSWMA truck can reach.  We’ve made a bit of progress.

Garbage in the sea is a danger to the health and safety of both people and marine life, and a threat to the prosperity of a nation that depends on tourism.  To stop this problem at its source, the cooperation and commitment we saw on Cleanup Day have to continue all year round.  The payoff – a healthier, safer, more beautiful country – will be well worth it.