To many flies at Belle Isle correctional facility

EDITOR: Ever since the solid waste management unit started the landfill at Belle Isle, despite resistance by local environmentalists that contaminated water can leach down through the soil and affect residents in the Wallilabou area including the Wallilabou falls recreational site, flies have been a constant menace to both staff, inmates and visitors of that correctional institution.

His Majesty’s Prisons at both locations (Belle Isle and Kingstown) have visitors on a daily basis, but while bed bugs are the main plague in Kingstown, the common house fly is a menace to all persons at Belle Isle, the source of this problem just a few hundred feet away from the jail. Visitors who are aware of the problem have voluntarily brought insect spray to safeguard themselves as well as leaving the remainder with the staff.

One recent visitor who had to keep fanning these pests from landing on her face, hands, legs and just about everywhere commented “way mek dem nah mop d place with bleach an vinegar, den all dem fly dey go run”. Sometimes these home remedies are more effective in repelling these pests than toxic chemicals sprayed in the air which humans have to inhale. It is time that this ‘nuisance’ be tackled from its source and that the Belle Isle landfill management do something tangible to control these flies. This has been a problem for several years that needs to be addressed urgently.

Another issue plaguing visitors and staff at the correctional institution at Belle Isle is the lack of a proper bus shed/stop. The makeshift bus shed close to the main road was destroyed during the passage of Hurricane Beryl and has since not been rebuilt. Now this can be done quickly by either the government or civil society organisations like the Lions, Rotary or other good corporate citizens. They can provide the materials and the inmates with carpentry and masonry skills can build a strong shed to protect users from the elements.
According to local meteorological records, Belle Isle is one part of the island that receives the highest amount of rainfall annually, therefore having a properly covered bus shed at Belle Isle is an urgent necessity. With the annual open day for visitors normally held during the Christmas season just weeks away, having a proper large bus shed is of utmost importance. Once all the materials are in place/available, a decent bus shed can be erected in about three days. Inmates with artistic abilities can paint that structure.

Come on, prisoners, their care takers and the visiting public have human rights too and deserve better sanitary conditions. Why wait for an outbreak in disease before acting, ‘a stitch in time saves nine’.

Donald De Riggs