NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (July 13, 2021) — A Bill to put in place an adequate solid waste management structure to protect the environment and the overall public health of Nevis was passed after its second and third reading at a sitting of the Nevis Island Assembly on July 13, 2021.

The Nevis Solid Waste Management Authority Bill, 2021 which repeals and replaces the Nevis Solid Waste Management Authority Ordinance Cap.3.03 was tabled by Hon. Hazel Brandy-Williams, Junior Minister of Health in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) earlier this year.

“In order for us to accomplish this, we must have the relevant legislation in place to properly manage the activities of an effective solid waste management authority, and so for that very reason we have come to make some adjustments to the governing ordinance,” she said.

The new ordinance will provide for the management of solid waste including its collection, storage and disposal in conformity with the best environmental practices and for other related or connected matters.

It will also seek to implement a practical system that allows the Nevis Solid Waste Management Authority to have full oversight of the management of the process undertaken by the authority.

The Nevis Solid Waste Management Authority Ordinance which was enacted in January 2003 was modelled from the St. Christopher and Nevis Solid Waste Management Corporation Act 1996. That Ordinance established the Nevis Solid Waste Management Authority and gave it the responsibility for solid waste collection, storage, treatment and disposal in Nevis.

Mrs. Brandy-Williams said 19 years later the time had come for some prudent revisiting and updating against the backdrop of challenges confronting them – the increase in solid waste generation, inadequate disposal sites, low collection rates, and the management of the challenges.

The Junior Health Minister also spoke to the issue of dwindling space at the Long Point Landfill.

“I must speak to the inadequacy of the space at the present landfill because quite frankly, it has outgrown its usefulness.

“The Nevis we know today is certainly not the Nevis we knew 19 years ago, and this is all because we are seeing more and more cars on our roads. We are witnessing a boom in the construction industry so more and more buildings are being built. People are acquiring more and more personal amenities. In light of all this, we are seeing the generation of more waste ending up at our landfill,” she said.