Better waste management policies needed—Queen Shereen
A new policy is now being advocated for, by popular Virgin Islander, Ms Shereen D. Flax-Charles, also known as Queen Shereen.
She made her views known, when she appeared as a guest on Honestly Speaking, with Claude O. Skelton Cline, on his radio programme on Tuesday, September 24, 2018.
Clean Communities
According to Ms Flax-Charles, “we need clean communities and that is one of my pet peeves, is that our waste management policies, we need to rethink that whole area there.’
She told Mr Skelton-Cline while the Department of Waste Management does “work very hard,” the VI is at a stage where, “we really need to think hard about recycling.”
Ms Flax-Charles lamented also that while there are some ‘good laws on the books’ they are not adhered to or enforced.
Enforcement
“Enforcement in the BVI is a challenge because a lot of us feel we can go, we get a ticket we go to a minister or government official, can you get rid of this and those are things we need to get away from that, let’s do the right thing for our communities .”
She gave as example garbage laden trucks that are traversing the Territory uncovered with debris and waste simply being blown off and is left strewn across the roadways.
“We are one of the best tourist destinations in the world and we cannot afford to be dirty,” she reiterated.
The Calypso Queen stressed that the culture of having a clean community must be taught from a young age.
Honestly Speaking Skelton-Cline blamed the leadership of the VI for the levels of “mediocrity” which exists in the Territory with regards the country’s waste management policies and enforcement saying “we deserve better.”
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7 Responses to “Better waste management policies needed—Queen Shereen”
In large locales, solid waste sites can be developed with a 100 year lifecycle. The BVI small size does not allow such a luxury; further, the challenges are complicated by having to manage solid waste on smaller sister islands. Nonetheless, the BVI must develop a strong structural programme to manage its solid waste.
First, a behavioral change in regards to solid waste management is needed. Second, to reduce the demand on landfill, incinerator.......etc a strong effective recycle programme must be put in place. Recycle, reduce and reuse. Third, due to the small size of the territory, the small volume generated, storage cost, transport cost to recycling centre(s) outside of territory, administrative cost......etc, the cost of recycling may appear to outweigh the benefits; however, there are benefits beyond the cost. Fourth, as Queen Shereen noted, policies put in place must be enforced to be effective. And fifth, public service announcement (PSA), along with other public education and outreach effort, must be put in place to educate the public on the value of waste management.
http://www.virginislandsnewsonline.com/en/news/queen-shereen-calls-chico-b-a-default-monarch
According to our information, the problem started when a conversation ensued after Chico B was crowned, and was expected to compete again in the Calypso final in Tortola, which he did not and only participated as a guest artist. Chico B said he was halted in his tracks when a calypsonian that he only wanted to refer to as “Queen” told him “shut your blasted mouth when you are here in people country you have no say,” and that he was only there for the money.
“It was a very emotional thing for me to experience, somebody who is supposed to be my friend. So I just put pen to paper and write my song,” he said.