Members of the Callaloo Mews community along Spanish Town Road, Western St Andrew want the Government to attend to their many plights, among them better roads and improved street lighting.
They believe that if those things were to be done, there would be an improvement in the collection of garbage in the community, which, like the bad roads and poor lighting, is causing them grief.
Callaloo Mews, formed out of the then Government’s Operation Pride housing project during the 1990s, is a small community that is situated across from the Riverton City landfill and is home to about 500 residents.
Some residents who have been living in the general area for over 20 years have expressed that there hasn’t been much developmental change except for the housing project that has taken place.
One resident who asked not to be named said that the garbage disposal container at the community’s entrance needs to be removed because it is right next to the school and poses a danger to pupils. “Sometimes the garbage can’t hold — it’s too much. And then dog, goat, rat, cockroach an’ all dem something deh scatter it about the place,” the resident said.
The resident said that the garbage truck comes, but the garbage isn’t being disposed of properly. “If we’re gonna develop the community, a nuh Member of Parliament, a nuh politician; is we the people who live in the community we mek it be like this. We nu dispose of our garbage,” said the resident, who gained support from another, who added: “Dem nuh clean up di place an’ a dat me nuh like,” she said.
Principal of the Callaloo Mews Basic School Angela Gordon Black lives outside of the Callaloo Mews community, but is also affected by some of the challenges that face the residents.
She regards herself as a humanitarian who has kept her children’s best interest at heart. Having served as the school’s principal for over 12 years, Gordon Black zoomed in on some of the things that are needed in the community, among them effective garbage collection, sewage management and housing.
“I would tell the authorities that look, this is a civilised time, you have roads, so send the garbage truck to di people dem gate. This is a new day and age; people are walking almost a mile to come right at the front and put their garbage right at the doorway of the community. It is right there, it is too close to the school and each time I turn up in the mornings and see it, it affects me very much,” Black said.
The school is the only public building in the community and it is like an oasis in the desert, according to Black, who said that she tries to keep the school as clean as possible so that when students “come from out those shacks and sewer water and come inside, it’s like a haven for them”.
Ed Lowe has been living in Callalloo Mews for about 40 years. He too wants the State to pay attention to the well being of the citizens of the area and institute some of the basic needs that would improve their lives.
“Callalloo Mews is a very nice community and we’re suffering in terms of help. We need help from Government and non-government organisations to get our community to a proper and livable state,” Lowe said.
Another community senior, Everon Lobban said that it would demand a strong community effort to lift the community from the many challenges that it is facing.
“The community to me split into about five different minds of people,” Lobban said. “Yuh have people weh a talk ‘bout the sewage and people weh a talk ‘bout the road more important than the sewage, and yet still if yuh fix the road and nuh fix the sewage is a problem. And then, yuh have people weh a seh we need the light and development, but it needs a community-based group fi deal with Callaloo Mews… Callaloo Mews can’t deal wid nuh one man,” Lobban said.