Where did our waste go before the Sanitation Service Authority in
Barbados?
At the beginning of the 20th
century Barbados found itself in the peculiar position of being a colony with
little to no idea or the means of how to maintain proper sanitary conditions
throughout the island. This effected every corner of the island as citizens
struggled to look after their health and sanitary means under the limited scope
of the Vestry system in the island.
Bridgetown had become a central hub,
for business, trade and tourist activity; but unfortunately, it had also been
riddled with urban slums, poorly placed vendor markets and very unsanitary
conditions. The illegal dumping of night soil (excreta), garbage/refuse, the unsafe
use of water and rivers, the congestion of gutters and drains along with lack
of sanitary practices often lead to the outbreak of diseases. In 1908, the
Public Health Act maintained that persons who lived in the city ought to clean outside
their premises or business by 8am; those in the suburbs were to be done by 9am.
Informal dumping sites had also been designated around the city, in areas such
as Hill Road, Bank Hall, Black Rock, Carrington’s Village, Reef Grounds,
Cheapside, Brittons Hill and other approved private lands.
John Hutson was a public health
officer in 1905 who was appointed to the Board of Health between 1902-1924 to
improve the deplorable living conditions in Barbados which were leading to high
infant mortality rates. By 1914, the infant mortality rate was at its highest
403 deaths for every 1000 births, however when compared to Trinidad and even
England and Wales, it was notable 3 times higher than the countries average. Waste was disposed of in various ways such as in cesspits, latrines, privy
pits, galvanized pails, groundsills, disused buckets, a keg or tin, compost,
refuse sites, old quarries, dumping (food items and large items) at sea by
barges, or incineration. Night soil was buried directly in the yards of homes
or random areas and used to fertilizer crops. Fire was often used to burn
leaves and waste around the island.
Dump sites were often poorly
maintained and when heavy rains fell, they became large breeding sites for mosquitoes
causing outbreaks such as the Malaria epidemic in 1927. Many parishes used
standpipes and there was no waterborne sewage system that service the entire
island in the 1930s. Illegal and improper dumping of night soil lead to many
diseases such as hookworm and typhoid as many homes had dirt floors and impoverish
persons mostly were barefoot. Scavenging was provided by the cleansing
department to keep the streets and gutters clean throughout Bridgetown. It also
collected refuse in carts and motor vehicles in the late 1930s.
In the Northern districts, parishes
such as St. James and St. Peter had their own unique ways of dealing with lack
of access to sanitary services. In Holetown, the hole swamp provided natural
drainage of rain water, which prevented the spread of many diseases until the
late 1950s. They also had weed collectors who used donkey carts to collect the
weeds and tree clippings throughout the parishes. Parishes such as St. Lucy,
St. Andrew and St. Joseph had the poorest sanitary conditions as many including
poor whites or “Redlegs” lived in huts, had no proper sanitary disposal
methods. They received little to no assistance from the vestries and lack oversight
from the sanitary inspectors. This led to residents often burying their night
soil in shallow latrine pits which caused a severe hookworm infection in
1912-18, when the rains fell and flooded the area. Barbadians often dumped
their garbage in the sea, on the beach and in gullies which surrounded the area.
The riots of 1937, highlighted
Barbados’s lack of sanitary services and the need for the Board of health to
properly manage the sanitary conditions around the island. In the 1940s,
conditions in Bridgetown and other parishes started to improve. In St. Michael
in 1945 and onward, latrines, privy pits, groundsels were provided, repaired,
washed and maintained by the cleansing department often known as ‘rose tree
trimmers’. In 1950, a new septic tank latrine and bath was introduced at
Kensington and open to the public and the Eagle Hall Market was constructed in
1953 as a means of dealing with overcrowded vending. In the northern parishes,
in 1950, the Medical officers of health were inspecting and introduced a new
improved pit toilet. Although only one tenth of the Barbadian budget went for
medical and sanitary services in 1950; by 1956, this shifted to thirteen percent.
By 1954, 10,000 piped water installations took place throughout the island.
After the passing of hurricane Janet
in 1955, death and destruction permeated every part of the island, this
drastically changed the operations of Board of Health and Government’s approach
to public health. All Hurricane relief centres required constant inspections
and were disinfected daily using disinfectants. Other surviving hurricane
shelters, almshouses and clinics were inspected by sanitary inspectors. New
standpipes and repairs were carried out by the Sanitation department. Many of
the public baths and latrines were destroyed. By 1959, government received aid
from the UNICEF fund to provided pit latrines to impoverished Barbadians. By
1962, the infant mortality rate had steadily declined to 55 out of every 1000
live births with the introduction of new sanitary measures and better education
on health services.
The Health Service Act of 1969, gave
the now centralized Minister of Health, greater powers over managing public
health and sanitation throughout the island and was fully enacted on March 1st,
1975 with established the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) to service the
public. This act allowed for the construction and maintenance of sewage
disposal sites and laying pipes to complete Barbados waterborne sewage system.
It also gave them greater control over streets, drains and sewages. With the
powers to facilitate the inspections of homes, schools and other properties
while appointing trained public health inspectors and a Chief Medical Officer
to deal with matters throughout the island.
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