Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator Matthew Samuda, on a tour of the Greenwich Town Sewage Site today said emergency procurement of services has started to address the odour affecting the surrounding community.

The Minister led a delegation comprising Member of Parliament for St. Andrew South Western, Dr. Angella Brown-Burke, senior team of the National Water Commission and the MEGJC to evaluate concerns that were expressed by residents in the area.

“The residents of Greenwich Town and the immediate environs have had to deal with this untenable situation for too long. I know MP and the team at NWC have been in dialogue to look at short, medium and long term solutions to the problem,” Minister Samuda said.

The team has completed the engagement of an excavator to uncover one of the four tanks to facilitate measurements and calculations.

“We are here today to start the apology process because it won’t be a short term process to apologize for years of unfair treatment. And we are also here to assure residents that preliminary work has already started,” Minister Samuda said.

Minister Samuda said in November, medium term actions will commence to further alleviate the odour.

There will be the engagement of a Design Engineer to configure gravity feed flow from the Soapberry inlet chamber to the tanks, and the wet well (the actual dump location).

The Design Engineer will also retrofit the digester into a cesspool dump bay, primary clarifier and a pre-biological treatment tank during a span of 1-2 months.

On a longer term basis, the team will engage a  construction engineering company to undertake works including establishing boundaries and erecting a fence, with an entrance gate to control the illegal dumping at nights.

According to Minister Samuda, these measures will be joined with increased police control and will greatly alleviate the overflow and spillage at the sewage site.

Plans are also in place for sensitization sessions with residents in the new year where MP Brown-Burke, NWC and the Ministry can present amicable solutions for all stakeholders.