'One Love' Labour Day

SPANISH TOWN: HUNDREDS OF residents in Spanish Town and surrounding communities turned out to clean up their communities and public spaces under the "One Love, One Clean Community" banner on Labour Day.

At the Old Harbour Fishing Village, residents and vendors came out to give the beach a well-needed facelift as the major project for St. Catherine. They cleaned debris and solid waste from the beach with assistance from Metropolitan Parks and Markets (MPM), the Parish Council and the Social Development Commission (SDC).

Residents said they would endeavour to keep the beach clean and free from solid waste. Officers at the St. Catherine Health Department told The Gleaner that as soon as water was restored to the beach they would lift a ban on activities at the beach. The Health Department closed the beach on April 4 because of sanitary concerns.

On Labour Day, work was also done on the Poor Relief complexes in Old Harbour, Ensom City, Leiba Gardens, Tawes Pen, Featherbed lane and Little Greendale.

In Portmore, several small groups of residents, youth & community clubs, citizens associations, service clubs, churches and members of the business community could be seen cleaning sidewalks, drains, planting trees and painting walls.

The major project for Portmore was the cleaning of sections of the causeway. The project was spearheaded by MPM and included the Mormon Church, the Portmore Junior Chamber and the youth arm of the People's National Party (PNP).

Members of the Edgewater Citizens Association began working from as early as 5:30 a.m. to clean up the Edgewater round-about. The group was later joined by representatives of Courts Jamaica.

In the Greater Portmore area, the Silver Stone Citizens Association turned out in large numbers to clean up that community. SDC community development officer, Mrs. Amy Brown, was on hand to oversee several projects in that area.

Member of Parliament for South East St. Catherine, Dr. Paul Robertson, who assisted to work on the causeway project, challenged residents and commuters to keep the entrance to the Portmore communities clean. He said Portmore was to benefit from a $20 million solid waste management project to be undertaken islandwide.

Back to St. Catherine Feature