Minister of Environment and National Beautification, Trevor Prescod.
The scores of persons employed by Government recently to undertake a major clean-up initiative across the island will get to keep their jobs past the end of the current financial year.
Word of this has come from Minister of Environment and National Beautification, Trevor Prescod. He made the comments in the House of Assembly yesterday morning as he led off the debate on a supplementary of $748 800, required to pay those individuals. He made the point while noting that the workers have been attached to the National Conservation Commission.
He went on to say that an adjustment has been made to the terms and conditions of those workers who were recruited a month ago, such that instead of working every week, they will now work week on, week off. He explained that this approach is being taken given the financial constraints that continue to affect the country, but he said that it is important that the programme continues, as the country’s landscape had been sorely neglected for many years.
“... The entire country was overrun by bush and the challenges which we faced and are still facing, but obviously we are seeing signs of mitigation and to some extent total eradication of some of these problems...
“To some extent because of the reduction of the pressures on the economy and having more finance at our disposal, we definitely have to make sure that persons, especially those who are economically vulnerable, we have to ensure that we find some means of incorporating or integrating them back into the mainstream of our national workforce,” he said.
With that in mind, he referred to the clean-up programme as a humane effort that has two benefits – cleaning up the country and helping to gradually reduce employment levels in Barbados. In that vein, he said the approach to identifying the persons who were brought on board was equitable and incorporated persons from across the island.
“If you drive through St. John, if you drive through St. Joseph, if you drive through St. Lucy it is as though the whole country has been transformed into full urbanisation. And I use urbanisation in the context that almost all over Barbados today you can see the results of this money that is being well spent,” Minister Prescod stated.
Apart from the need to engage in a debushing programme, Prescod said the growing number of derelict vehicles and houses is another issue confronting his ministry, posing health and environmental risks to Barbadians. To that end, he said his ministry is working assiduously to address this issue, such that where there are no real challenges to the removal of those homes or vehicles the ministry takes action.
“Especially with the derelict vehicles – lots of the agencies that are responsible for helping us get rid of this type of waste, those agencies are also experiencing their challenges because the agencies are not consummate recycling units, so the agencies have to depend on external markets to be able to rid themselves of the derelict vehicles,” he noted.
Minister Prescod said a number of these agencies have experienced issues with shipping the vehicles, as well as from the external market, where the country to which they are seeking to send the vehicles sometimes put a hold on accepting such imports. Given that reality, he said Government recognises the need to collaborate with the private sector to establish genuine recycling plants in the future. (JRT)