After videos circulated on social media showing a blue garbage truck dumping its trash on the roadside, regional corporations and the Solid Waste Management Company Ltd were quick to respond.
A woman stopped her car to make the recording and a man wearing a T-shirt with the logo "GCL" spoke with her.
In the video she said, "They throwing rubbish there – that is wrong. Watch the state of this place. Watch it good. That is not the dump. All yuh can't be throwing that there. We disappointed with allyuh. We fed up of this."
The man in the video said, "Woah, family, hear what going on," before filming was stopped.
SWMCOL posted on its Facebook page that the incident occurred in Claxton Bay, but when CEO Ria Ramdeen was contacted, she said it actually occurred on Demerara Road, Arima, and the post should have been removed.
Ramdeen said it was not SWMCOL's responsibility to identify the contractor, as contrzctors are hired by regional corporations. She said the Arima corporation was going to take action.
Newsday contacted the chairman of the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo corporation, Henry Awong, because the dumping reportedly took place in Claxton Bay.
He said he was not familiar with the incident, but said garbage had been dumped with increasing regularity in his region. Presuming it was his region, Awong said once there was evidence he would send the municipal police.
Mayor of Arima Cagney Cassimire was contacted next, based on the advice from SWMCOL.
Cassimire said he too was unfamiliar with the Demerara case, but concurred that indiscriminate dumping had been occurring more frequently.
"That is not my area, " Cassimire said, "but we knew people were dumping there, but we could not catch them."
Cassimire said Demerara Road was under the purview of the Tunapuna/Piarco corporation. His suggestion to tackle the problem was installing cameras to gather evidence and enforce the $1,000 fine on perpetrators.
Next, Newsday contacted the chairman of the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation Kwasi Robinson.
He said he knew of the video and an investigation had been launched. He added SWMCOL had contacted the contractor to remove the garbage when the video began circulating.
But, he said, "We are conducting our own internal investigation and we will take action against the offending contractor, once we find it to be so.
"(From) one of the videos, it appeared that there was an emblem of a contractor. We just have to confirm that it was that contractor."
The corporation intends to pursue legal action, so Robinson did not want to name the contractor. He said he would take action once the investigation was completed.
Robinson said, "The offending contractor has some of the most lucrative contracts in the corporation. Our annual costs for garbage pick-up is between $45 and $60 million a year, and they are one of the larger service providers, but I can't say the exact amount."
Asked what measures could be put in place to stop the dumping of refuse, Robinson said, "Hire better contractors.
"It is very u
