Garbage found during a cleanup exercise in Road Town in November 2011. Hon. Christian says garbage disposal has to be of serious importance to all in the VI. Photo: VINO

Coordinator of the National Clean-up Campaign, Hon. Archibald Christian. Photo: VINO

He noted that the campaign had started with the removing of derelict vehicles and boats from certain places and proceeded to trimming the roadsides for both the people of the Virgin Islands and tourists to enjoy the scenic views, and now he is closely working with the Director of the Solid Waste Department to see how they could be able to remove more heavy derelict items.

The At Large Representative added, however, that in Road Town alone there are considerable amounts of challenges with respect to items on Wickham’s Cay 1.

“As one person pointed out in one of our stories, we have a lot of garbage just to the West of the House of Assembly from there all the way down to the taxi stand... We have the challenges with the number of sunken boats in Baughers Bay and Soper’s Hole in West End and so once we get past the budget process, we are right now going through Standing Finance and I am able to identify some funds from all of my colleagues, we will make some more announcements as to how we will progress with the clean-up campaign,” Hon. Christian said on NDP Radio on Monday February 6, 2012.

Hon. Christian is also hoping that persons in the VI would appreciate the initiative and its objective and take responsibility for keeping the Territory clean. He also said Government intends to educate the masses in that regard.

“We want every single person, residents and belongers, in the BVI to recognise that this is our home and the way we dispose of garbage and where we dispose of garbage, has to be of serious importance to all of us and so we just don’t want people to think that we are trying to create jobs in a fast way for people to make money but we want people to recognise that there is a responsibility for each and everyone of us to keep these islands clean and so from Anegada to Jost Van Dyke, we as a Government will be trying to educate people about garbage disposal, trying to educate people about beautification and at the end of the day we will have a country to be proud of.”

Meanwhile, Hon. Christian lauded the efforts of the Brewer’s Bay clean up group. “Their initiative seems to be an on-going thing, they recognise that Brewer’s Bay is part of the tourism community and they are doing their best to keep it clean.”