WESTERN BUREAU

Residents in Tower Hill and Moyhall, St James, are fearing a leptospirosis outbreak as rats and other rodents have begun to overrun their communities.

Owen Parnell, a pastor at a local church in Moyhall, said the rat infestation is as a result of a garbage-clogged gully that runs adjacent to both communities.

"There is no designated area to dump garbage in the respective communities and the garbage truck does not come in the area, so persons have resorted to dumping the waste in the gully and this is now creating a health hazard. We are literally living in fear of getting leptospirosis because of what is happening," the concerned pastor said.

He said attempts to get garbage skips from the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) placed at a central location to facilitate garbage disposal have proved futile. Tower Hill and Moyhall are not listed on the schedule for garbage collections based on a schedule submitted by the NSWMA for garbage collections in St James.

not on schedule

However, acting regional operations manager at WPM Waste Management, Neville Black, said while the communities are not on the collection schedule, a truck is sent to the area when there is an available unit to collect solid waste.

Chief public health inspector for St James, Hubert Cooke, said: "The matter was reported to me on Wednesday and I have since sent an inspector to the area to investigate the matter. I must say that we have had successes in the past with our rodent-control programme."

He said the St James Health Department will be treating the situation as a matter of importance in order to mitigate any circumstance that could lead to a health hazard for residents.

This is not the first incident of rat infestation in the parish as last May the public health authority was forced to implement a rodent-control programme in Montego Bay following several complains by citizens.

The areas in the Second City that have seen a high population of rodents include Fisherman's Complex along the Howard Cooke Boulevard, Market Circle, the National Water Commission, the People's Arcade, the Transport Centre, Railway Gardens, Mt Salem Health Centre and Mt Alvernia and along Market Street.