Farmers at Spencers, Christ Church, are concerned over what they claim to be the dumping of septic waste on the agricultural land that they cultivate.
The farmers say the matter has been a long-standing struggle, with septic trucks travelling to the site and unloading their waste at one of the entry points to the farmland.
Farmer Orlando Haynes and others on site said they have seen trucks enter the area and dump the waste at least once a month. He said that sometimes the load is so heavy that the effluence leaks onto the main road and onto the tracks that farmers drive through.
“When it’s raining it’s worse because the smell is stronger. It smells terrible. I would like them to stop dumping it there and find somewhere else to dump that,” Haynes said.
Vendor Amanda Oxford expressed concerns about the sanitary conditions of the effluence in the area, noting that the smell has intensified since Monday when the trucks returned twice in one day to dump their waste into the area.
“I have to bring tarp down to block the smell and I have to keep a mask on. It’s not healthy, something has to be done,” Oxford said.
“They throw it every year, but to me, it’s smelling worse this year. They dumped it two times on Monday and then if the sun is hot the smell is more intense,” she said.
Farmer James Matthews said even though the stench does not reach his side of the plantation, it is still a problem for travellers along the main road and anyone entering the field.
“At this moment it is not an issue for us in the interior but as long as you’re passing in here, you have to deal with it. You can smell it from the time you get off the bus, it would have you catching bad feels, it is definitely devastating,” he said.
A health inspector who asked not to be named and was on the site when the DAILY NATION team visited the area, said it was the first time that the incident was reported and that an assessment of the situation would be conducted.
In an interview with Starcom Network, attorney and farmer Amoy Gilding-Bourne called for the longstanding matter to be addressed, noting that the conditions were not ideal for agricultural work.
“They used to treat it before but it appears that it is not being treated now because the smell out there is horrific. It’s been like this for a long time, you really have farmers trying to grow produce in farm ground where there is refuse and waste,” she said.
(JRN)
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