More than 150 truck­loads of garbage had to be re­moved from the north-east­ern beach­es and rivers yes­ter­day left be­hind by over 6,000 campers and beach lovers over the long East­er week­end.

Chair­man of the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Ter­ry Ron­don de­scribed the rub­bish pile-up as the worst he had seen in years.

He called on Gov­ern­ment to take de­ci­sive ac­tion against campers, vis­i­tors and beach lovers who con­tin­ue year-af­ter-year to leave piles of garbage be­hind af­ter days of en­joy­ment and fun.

“The campers dirty up the beach­es from Matelot to Matu­ra. I am re­al­ly dis­ap­point­ed. This time it was the worst. The beach­es are in a mess. I am sad­dened to­day be­cause I in­vit­ed cit­i­zens to come to the north-east­ern re­gion for the East­er week­end to en­joy them­selves be­cause the area is safe,” Ron­don said.

But in­stead of keep­ing a clean scene, Ron­don said mounds of garbage was strewn every­where, which left him fu­ri­ous.

“I am an­gry be­cause as a peo­ple we are not try­ing to do our part in clean­ing our en­vi­ron­ment... bear­ing in mind that all these things con­tribute to wide­spread flood­ing. We saw what hap­pened last Oc­to­ber af­ter a few hours of heavy show­ers. The wa­ter in­vad­ed many homes and peo­ple were left strand­ed for days. It seems we are not learn­ing any­thing.”

In a four-hour span on Tues­day, Ron­don said a crew of 45 con­trac­tors in­clud­ing a clean-up teams from the cor­po­ra­tion had to dis­man­tle scores of make-shifts toi­lets, bath­rooms, kitchens and liv­ing quar­ters at Saly­bia-Whar­ton Es­tate alone which amount­ed to 30 truck­loads of waste.

Ron­don said if the cor­po­ra­tion was the own­er of this sprawl­ing beach­front they could have reg­u­lat­ed and charged campers to use the fa­cil­i­ty.

This beach ac­com­mo­dat­ed up to 3,000 campers, Ron­don said.

The dis­card­ed ma­te­r­i­al com­prised rusty gal­vanise sheet­ing, pieces of ply­wood, lengths of lum­ber, dis­card­ed tar­pau­lins, dried co­conut branch­es, strips of foams, non-work­ing fridges, old pots, buck­ets, sty­ro­foam con­tain­ers, rot­ten food­stuff and plas­tic and glass bot­tles.

Campers al­so left mounds of garbage at Shark, Mar­i­anne, Yara and Va­len­cia rivers and at sev­er­al rent­ed com­mu­ni­ty cen­tres.

“They have the beach­es and rivers like a shan­ty town. It’s a free for all as there is no reg­u­la­tion and en­force­ment. They do­ing what they want with no con­se­quences. They can’t go Mara­cas Bay and do that. But they com­ing here. What these campers and beach lovers bring­ing, they not car­ry­ing back. They are not even walk­ing with garbage bags any more. So the beach­es and rivers have be­come a dump­ing ground.”

Ron­don said he ex­pect­ed an­oth­er 120 truck­loads to be cleared from Saly­bia to Matelot.

He said the cor­po­ra­tion’s hands have been tied, as they have no lit­ter war­dens to en­force the law.

A per­son found guilty of lit­ter­ing is li­able to be fined $4,000 or six months im­pris­on­ment.

“I have al­ready re­ceived calls from res­i­dents in Matelot say­ing that their com­mu­ni­ty is cov­ered in lit­ter...in mess.”

He said if crews had not be­gun to clean the beach­es and rivers from last Wednes­day, the sit­u­a­tion would have been a to­tal dis­as­ter.

It would cost the cor­po­ra­tion $58,000 in over­time to have these ar­eas cleaned. Those funds, Ron­don said, could have been put to bet­ter use.