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BECQ to re-enforce anti-litter regulations
The Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality will soon start re-enforcing anti-litter regulations because community members continue to leave trash on the sides of the road, some that are not even typhoon related.
BECQ would like to inform the community that litter officers would be patrolling villages from 4:30am to 6:30pm to cite people who continue to leave trash by public roads.
“We want the community [to know] we’re out here, we’re making sure you’re not bringing your household trash, because we will first warn you…then we will have no choice but to enforce the anti-littering regulation,” he said.
Three months following the onslaught of Super Typhoon Yutu, the Department of Public Works, the Saipan Mayor’s Office, and BECQ continue to pickup trash off of the side of public road ways despite the implemented deadline of Jan. 15.
The trash no longer consists of just typhoon-related debris but of household waste as well.
According to BECQ administrator Eli Cabrera, trash continues to re-appear when BECQ comes in for a final sweep.
“The deadline was to inform the public that the last day to be putting your trash out by the road is Jan. 15 and we would do a final sweep…but it looks like it’s not working. They clean it today, we come by tomorrow and then there’s trash again,” he said.
Cabrera said that the agencies would need to stop picking up the trash because its no longer typhoon related.
“We’re going to need to call it…we’re only addressing typhoon-related debris. The challenge now that’s making it difficult for the mayor and the Department of Public Works is…that whenever we clean in one place, give it a day or two, there’s a new batch of trash piled up. At some point it’s going to have to stop,” he said.
“I know a lot of the stuff that we’re collecting are suppose to be typhoon-related that FEMA covers with reimbursement for our efforts but if you start seeing trash bags, you know it came from the house, those are not typhoon debris but the community is becoming more dependent and comfortable… and that’s kind of the challenge right now,” he added.
