The Solid Waste Management (SWMC) is calling for a chance to interact with members of law enforcement and the judiciary to sensitize them on the importance of upholding environmental laws in the country. According to SWMC Operations Supervisor Mr. Wilmon McCall, the judiciary and law enforcement officers in St. Kitts are not taking waste disposal and environmental infractions seriously. “The police force has a training program that they go through where each policeman is trained…what about environmental matters. How well are their trained regarding somebody littering,” Mr. McCall explained, adding that he has been calling for some interaction between the police and the SWMC. “A question was posed to me lately; would you like to have some of these magistrates and have a training session with them? And my answer is yes,” Mr. McCall added. “Learned as they are and I don’t question that, they still need to know about Solid Waste Management.”

The SWMC official lamented what appears to be an indifference by some of the magistrates and the courts on matters of waste disposal. This he noted makes their job at SWMC a lot harder. “What tends to happen is that sometimes the case is put off, and it’s put off a second time and sometimes up to a fourth time and then one day the case is called and all of a sudden Solid Waste members may not be aware of the date and the case is thrown out,” McCall said. “There was one case where we were called. The perpetrator came up in a short pants. He was asked to leave the court. The case was put off and by the time it was called again and we were late or not there, it was thrown out,” he explained.

To strengthen his point, Mr. McCall used an example of cases pertaining to derelict vehicles. “In one case for instance where my litter wardens took a gentleman to court for a number of abandoned or derelict vehicles on his property…and then as far as they are concerned the Magistrate would ask how do you know they are derelict? You are not a mechanic are you,” Mr. McCall lamented. He said that the people in the court system are not attuned to the environment or concerns of the solid waste management.

The attitude of the court extends to law enforcement, Mr. McCall pointed out. “Police officers, for instance, some of them are very naïve to the whole system of waste management and the enforcement and even through they are ex-officio litter wardens by reason of their office, they take very scantily, very simply the whole question of the environment,” Mr. McCall said.

Going forward the SWMC official would like the courts and law enforcement to take maters of the environment more seriously and work with them to see perpetrators pay for their infractions. “Until you understand the importance of it, you wouldn’t take it seriously,” Mr. McCall said. He said that officials in the Environmental Health Department also have the same issue as the SWMC. He noted however that he understands that the court has a backlog of cases of more heinous crimes to tend to and suggested the court may need to introduce additional sessions to deal with environmental cases, for example hosting court cases in the evening.