The Department of Environmental Health’s 150 staff members are not enough to meet Cayman’s growing population and subsequent increased demand for waste collection and disposal services, according to DEH Director Richard Simms, who is calling for an increase in the complement of his workers. “If you look where the Cayman Islands is now, in terms of how the population has increased, a lot of buildings and homes have gone up,” said Simms. “In order for us to keep up with that pace of trying to make sure that we do our scheduling on time [and] our collections on time, we have to make sure that we have the proper resources. So hopefully coming in the new year I want to see a boost in our personnel.”
The Economic and Statistics Offices’ 2008 Fall Labour Force Survey placed Cayman’s population at 57,009 people. The 2018 survey recorded Cayman’s population at 65,813 people. The additional 8,804 residents translates to a 15.44% increase, which Simms says has directly resulted in more demand for services and goods – which in turn puts more strain on DEH resources.
Simms says he is looking to increase his staff complement by 10% to 15% to address the increased strain. The bulk of DEH staff operates at the solid waste facility at the George Town landfill. Simms says he is looking to increase staff at the landfill and in the enforcement divisions, particularly when it comes to food and health inspections.
“There is no two ways about that, we need to increase the staff in that area because currently, right now, I only have three officers pretty much policing all the restaurants across the island,” he said. He added, “That’s definitely not enough when you look at the quantities that are out there, and they continue to come on stream every week, it looks like." Read the full story at
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