EDITORIAL
Barbados is a naturally beautiful paradise, with stunning, panoramic views and lovely homes. Unfortunately, overgrown, unattended lots are a common eyesore around the island that plague our society. Previous attempts have been made to address the situation, but it is high time this matter is handled, primarily by health and land tax authorities, to nip the problem in the bud once and for all.
Like other things that happen in Barbados, overgrown lots are a perennial problem confronting neighbourhoods which have few options to their reprieve. Over time, successive ministers of government from both major parties have called on landowners to be more responsible in regularly cleaning their parcels of land; that moral suasion seems, however, to have fallen on deaf ears. Communities around the island are inundated by all the ails overgrown lots incur. Not only do rodents breed excessively in these areas, but at times persons use the vacant lots as dumping grounds or as camouflage for nefarious purposes.
It isn’t only overgrown lots, but road bush in need of weeding. It is unfortunate that the restructuring exercises carried out by both the DLP and the BLP have reduced the numbers of persons engaged in roadside weeding and debushing via the National Conservation Commission and Beautify Barbados programmes, among others, as their efforts are sorely needed to reduce what we see daily as we drive.
What can the state do to solve such a problem? As mentioned before, in previous years, government launched an appeal for landowners to have a conscience and clean their lots as a civic duty. When that didn’t work (only a minority of owners followed through), millions of dollars were approved to fund a debushing programme across the country, where government cleaned the lots and expected landowners to reimburse the state. Apparently, their dereliction of duty also extended to paying bills, because government barely recovered any of the expenses undertaken to do the cleaning.
Some decision must be taken once and for all on this matter. No longer should the public suffer at the hands of the thoughtless few. We believe that health inspectors should once again police communities and flag those areas that are clearly posing a risk to the health of the community, which should naturally also include
abandoned houses and discarded vehicles left to harbour mosquitoes and rodents. In this way, violations are noted, recorded by date and monitored to ensure compliance. In much the same way inspectors follow up on commercial businesses which do not operate to standard, their community presence is needed to reduce other health hazards. If after several flags and warnings the landowner does not comply, there should be a provision through requisite legislation change that allows the land tax department to amend land tax rates for those who persistently refuse to comply with public health standards.
If we don’t take strong action, the guilty perpetrators will continue to do as they have been accustomed doing – nothing – which is unacceptable to those in communities around the island.
Finally, we need to stand up and ensure this problem is forever solved with the right legislation and community health policing for better standards in our communities.