By Kisean
The city of St John’s is falling short of basic sanitation standards, and a former Chief Health Inspector is calling for immediate and coordinated action from residents, businesses, and government authorities to reverse the decline.
Lionel Michael, speaking on Observer AM, outlined three critical areas he said must be addressed if the city is to return to an acceptable standard of cleanliness — proper waste preparation, stronger supervision of collection routes, and the return of high-velocity street and drain flushing.
Michael said the problem begins before the collection trucks even arrive. According to him, residents and business owners must ensure that waste is properly containerised in sturdy bags or suitable bins so that it is not scattered by animals, wind, or foot traffic before it can be collected.
Beyond preparation, Michael argued that supervision of waste collection routes is severely lacking. He said the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) cannot simply dispatch trucks and assume the job will be done and that active oversight is required to ensure routes are completed efficiently and on time.
“They have to improve their supervisory ability, supervisory capacity in St John’s, to ensure that the trucks go out at a certain time and complete the entire route that they’re given. They cannot just send the trucks out and hope that they complete the route,” he said.
Michael insisted that the flushing of the city’s streets and drains has been absent for too long and warned that without regular flushing, debris and food waste accumulate in gutters and drains, thereby creating ideal conditions for rats and other vermin.
Regarding establishments in the food business, Michael pointed out that existing public health legislation requires restaurants and other food establishments to take their own waste to the disposal site — a requirement he said is widely ignored. He proposed that the government introduce a bin rental scheme, providing suitable containers to business places and charging a fee for their use, to ensure waste is stored properly between collections rather than left in bags on the roadside.
Michael noted that food waste from restaurants is particularly problematic because of its perishable nature, and said it should be removed daily given how quickly it decomposes and generates odour.
He also addressed the potential for waste diversion, confirming that food waste can be composted on a large scale or separated at source and redirected to farmers for animal feed — practices he said some establishments are already doing informally. In terms of recycling cooking oil into biodiesel, Michael said a collection infrastructure would need to be established, noting that some Caribbean countries have already implemented dedicated oil collection systems, separate from regular waste streams.
Michael laments that St John’s does not look or smell the way it should — and with cruise ships regularly bringing visitors into the capital, the stakes for the country’s image are high.
The clean-up initiative includes the clearing and cleaning of drains, coastal areas, main roads and village corners.
Meanwhile, Attorney General and St John’s City South MP Sir Steadroy Benjamin has, in the past, voiced concern about the deteriorating condition of St John’s, warning that the capital city— which falls within his constituency — has declined to what he described as unacceptable levels. Benjamin had also said that parts of the city are now unsafe and unsanitary, pointing to abandoned and poorly maintained buildings that he described as “rat traps”.
In his discourse, he’d also raised concerns about garbage accumulation, abandoned boxes, and derelict properties that he said are contributing to severe rodent infestations, and claimed to have had sightings of rats “as big as cats,” using the example to highlight what he believes are growing public health and safety risks in the capital. He’d added then that the situation requires urgent attention from property owners and stakeholders to restore proper standards in the city.
