Residents of Ashton Hall, St Peter, continue to endure a persistent and pungent stench from a nearby pig farm, more than a year after first raising concerns with authorities.
Despite promises of improved waste management, the problem remains unresolved, with locals describing the smell as unbearable and a major disruption to daily life.
Their complaints prompted Barbados TODAY to return to the area.
The piggery’s owners had pledged last December to improve their waste management practices, but when pressed by Barbados TODAY as to why the problem had persisted, they were perplexed.
“We does wash down and clean up every day and pump the well every couple of months. Every couple of months we does spray too, we does use Jeyes Fluid. But nobody told us they were being affected again,” one of the owners, who did not want to give their name, said, after reassuring that they would use the disinfectant more regularly to cut down on the pungent odour.
The residents said the stench, a major humbug that affected their quality of life, was emanating from a gully directly behind the pig pens.
The odour, when Barbados TODAY visited, was not strong enough to cause discomfort but it was detected.
Franklin Corbin, 87, a retired London Underground worker who moved back to Barbados in 2006, said he could no longer relax on his patio.
He said: “I like to sit down out there either on mornings or evenings but the stench does so much I have to come in and close the door. It is unbearable at times; not every day, but it is affecting all of us up here.
“A time ago I spoke to someone from the health department because water from the pens ran down into the gully there and my neighbour told me up to yesterday they saw water running into the gully.
“This could be over two years that this issue has been going on. I would like to see something done about it. Maybe if they would clean the pens earlier. That smell really affects me because my wife just passed away and she too used to complain about that smell. It’s unbearable.”
Rodney Bovell also complained about the smell.
“Especially on a Sunday for lunch and dinner it is be really bad,” he said. “We have to wait till it clears up cause you can’t be eating and smelling that; it is really bad. We had spoken to a health inspector who told us that he advised them to build a well but whatever was built didn’t help at all.”
At the nearby Maurice Byer polyclinic, which has jurisdiction over the Ashton Hall area, Barbados TODAY was told that neither the principal environmental health officer nor the senior environmental health officer was present.
The residents also raised concerns as the area is designated a Zone One water catchment and supplies water to northern parishes. (SZB)
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