The Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment has re­sumed the re­cruit­ment of Lit­ter Pre­ven­tion War­dens across the na­tion.

A to­tal of 147 war­dens are to be re­cruit­ed.

Lit­ter Pre­ven­tion War­dens are man­dat­ed to en­sure the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Lit­ter Act Chap: 30: 52 in ac­cor­dance with the Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions poli­cies, pro­ce­dures and arrange­ments.

Con­se­quent­ly, they are an in­te­gral re­source to all cor­po­ra­tions with re­gard to pub­lic health and san­i­ta­tion.

The du­ties of the war­dens in­clude street and pub­lic pa­trols, the de­tec­tion of of­fences which cul­mi­nate in lit­ter of­fences or war­rant a clean-up or­der and the in­ves­ti­ga­tion of com­plaints and the prepa­ra­tion of state­ments and/or re­ports to use in the pros­e­cu­tion of said com­plaints.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the war­dens are ex­pect­ed to li­aise with coun­cils and statu­to­ry bod­ies such as the Emer­gency Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) on mat­ters which af­fect pub­lic health and safe­ty is­sues.

As the rainy sea­son pro­gress­es, the min­istry is re­mind­ing cit­i­zens to re­frain from il­le­gal­ly dump­ing garbage and to re­port any in­stances of il­le­gal dump­ing.

"Not on­ly do these ac­tiv­i­ties pose a se­vere health haz­ard as il­le­gal dump­ing sites fa­cil­i­tate ver­min and dis­ease, they al­so in­crease the po­ten­tial and sever­i­ty of flood­ing," the state­ment said.

The min­istry says per­sons caught in breach of the Lit­ter Act will be pros­e­cut­ed to the full ex­tent of the law.