THE Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) says it will be taking steps to clamp down on illegal vending on the streets of downtown Kingston as part of measures to keep the city clean.

Mayor of Kingston Senator Angela Brown-Burke said that the corporation would usually take action to remove the vendors close to the end of the year. She noted, however, that this has not worked in the past, as vendors continue to defy the rules to take advantage of

the heightened Christmas-shopping period.

The mayor alluded that

the operation of the illegal vendors has contributed

to the pile-up of garbage on the streets.

She is also blaming merchants for not putting adequate measures in place to ensure proper disposal of garbage generated during the busy Christmas period.

"In as much as I am asking the (National) Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) what additionally they have done to remove the garbage, I am also asking the same question of our merchants, what additionally did they put in place

to remove their excess commercial-generated garbage?" she questioned.

She said that it is the downtown business district that has primary responsibility for disposing of commercially generated waste.

In the meantime, Mayor Brown Burke said discussions will be held with the National Water Commission (NWC) with a view to upgrading

its sewage facilities in downtown Kingston.

"One of the things that I'll be speaking to the NWC about is their future plans for downtown, because the truth is the infrastructure is old and it cannot manage. It doesn't have the capacity to take the water and the sewage that are generated... sometimes people who are selling, even merchants themselves, allow some of their garbage to go into the drains and that blocks the drains," she lamented.

— JIS