NSWMA Overhauls Operations to Enhance Garbage Collection Efficiency and Staffing

By Aabigayle McIntosh

The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) is intensifying efforts to improve garbage collection and disposal efficiency.

Persistent delays in waste collection across parts of the island have prompted a recent review of the agency’s structure by the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda, aimed at enhancing its operations.

There has been significantly delays overtime in the collection of refuse in some areas across the island. Recently the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda conducted a survey of the board to further improve the structure and effectiveness of the statutory corporation.

Concerns have been raised regarding the overstaffing of the corporation.

In a state media interview, NSWMA Chairman Michael Joseph outlined plans to address this, including transitioning contractors to full-time employees

“So they’ll, of course, be contributing to the schemes, and Cabinet looked at it from more of a social protection perspective. These are some of the things that we’re going to be moving towards, as well as increasing. Currently we have 399 contractors. The intention is for us to move from 399 to about 450,” Joseph said.

He added,” Those 450 will be full-time. They will also be that part-time, so I’m sure you would have saw that note that came up from Cabinet about that part-time program which was proposed to them. So this will include an additional 50 to 80 individuals that will be on a part-time basis,” he added.

Addressing delays in waste collection, Joseph pointed out that some contractors failed to meet their obligations due to aging trucks, leading to frequent breakdowns.

Poor vehicle maintenance and occasional sabotage were also contributing factors.

“So the trucks were significantly past the expiration date, at least in some cases 25, 30 years past the expiration date. So no matter how much the contractor attempted to put them on the road to do the job, it just wasn’t practical. And so we had a lot of breakdowns in the initial stages” the Chairman said.

He also added that in some ways there were also poor management on the maintenance of vehicles belonging to Solid waste and also “intentional” sabotage in some cases.

To resolve these issues, NSWMA will increase its fleet and stop contracting companies that cannot manage their workload.

Over the last 8-10 months, the agency has been relying on its own trucks to fill gaps left by contractors. Cabinet has approved the purchase of 10 new trucks, ranging from 10 to 15 cubic meters in size, to enhance collection capacity.

“So the first seven actually will be here on the 24th of this month. The other three, which are the 15 cubic meters, will arrive in January of next year. So with this, of course, increased capacity, as I made a commitment to individuals, is that once we would have increased our capacity, this poor collection will be a thing of the past. As a matter of fact, we’re going to be looking at increasing collections,” Joseph added.

With this expanded fleet, Joseph committed to resolving collection delays and increasing the frequency of waste collection from once a week to twice a week, supported by a new shift system.