By Anastasha Elliott
Last Saturday the Nevis Historical Conservation Society collected 15,000 pounds of garbage.
The Environmental Action Committee of the society hosted an island wide clean up as part of the 35th annual Earth Day celebrations.
Earth Day is an international event celebrated on April 22 of each year since 1970.
Its focus is the care of the earth, said John Guilbert, Director of the NHCS.
Guilbert in an interview explained that each year “we get a list of volunteers who work with us to do something above the norm.”
This year Guilbert said that activity was an island wide clean up of large materials and debris such as refrigerators, stoves and other large appliances.
Solid Waste Management assisted the effort by waiving the fee when the items were transported to the facility, Guilbert said.
Residents were asked to deposit outside their homes major items they would like taken to the trash that would be picked up before 9 a.m.
The clean up was advertised over the airwaves — both radio and television — and through flyers and because of this was an overwhelming response by the peopel of Nevis, Guilbert said
Guilbert said the response was good “it shows that people want to help.”
The volunteers for this years’ event includes members of the Nisbett Plantation, Oualie Beach Hotel, Hart of Nevis, Jessups Delta Gas Station, Lyn Jeffers School, the Health Department, Galipot Restuarant and Cool Shade Lamp shade, to whom he gives a hearty thank you.
As part of the clean up exercise the reef at New Castle was assessed by the Director of the Fisheries Department Arthur Anslyn who according to Guilbert found that the reef in the area was flourishing with fish and lobster.
The lobsters he said were counted and weighed and place back in the ocean. Nevis has been celebrating Earth Day for the past 15 years with various clean up exercises said Guilbert.
Guilbert has said that he would like to see more volunteers showing up to help and urges locals to mark their calenders for next year for.
“It is very important that we give back to the earth what we take. If we take time to clean and put things back in the proper place things will be a lot better,” said Guilbert.
Miriam Knorr in an exclusive interview said the Environmental Action Committee which is apart of the NHCS for the past 15 years has participated in the International Coastal Clean up campaign usually held in September in additio to Harbour Day and Earth Day, “anything environmental.”
She explained that this year in celebration of Earth Day “we decided to drive around the island and remove items such as batteries, tires, smashed cans, washing machines, whatever we saw.”
Knorr said as a result of the promotions a number of calls were received from persons needing help to remove items from their premises.
She said some 23 trucks transported an estimated 15,000 pounds of garbarge to Solid Waste Management who waived the fee usually charged. She noted that along the road leading to the facility she observed trash littering the area. “It looked as though people were leaving their trash there and it was falling down into the beach,” said Knorr.
Garbage she said were collected from Craddock Road, Hermitage, St. Thomas Parish among other places. Several residents she said cleaned along the main road and bagged the trash collected “and we picked it up.”
The amount of trash collected and the amount of trash which still remain to be collected has prompted Knorr to say that the island is filthy. She said, “the island is littered with garbage on the VON Radio side and along the long road leading to the Solid Waste Management.”
She has speculated that garbage in certain areas can leak into the ground and could get into the water. “The time has come for the enactment of fines. Have you ever seen or heard of someone fined for littering?”
“I see people throwing garbage out of their car windows and I shout hey don’t do that,” said Knorr. However she has said her experience was very rewarding. “The most rewarding thing for me was helping people especially the blind, from whom we received a lot of calls, to clean up their yards.”
Earth Day according to the Regional Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Region 1 Robert Varney was nominated in 1970. That year he said the burgeoning environmental consciousness of the world began to be translated into a call to action.
“That year,” he added, “saw both the very first Earth Day celebration on April 22, and in December the creation of Environmental Protection Agency as a government agency dedicated to protecting the air, water and land.”
On the celebration of the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 the world awoke to the health and environmental ramifications of rampant and highly visible pollution said the EPA website.
EPA’s Administrator, Steve Johnson added that the day also helped instill the value in individuals of their personal responsibility to protect the environment.
