Not for the first time, people this week, in large swathes of the Corporate Area, have had to endure a heavy overhang of acrid smoke in the atmosphere because of a raging fire at the Riverton City landfill. And we use the term landfill advisedly.

The immediate discomfort from the smoke is bad enough, but that's not the end of it. For even after the fire has died, and most people have forgotten about it, until the next flare-up, we expect that there will be the residual effects - a rise in respiratory problems among children.

Costs

This, of course, will carry a cost - to individuals, in deteriorated health and the money they will have to spend for doctors and medication; to firms, because of the lost man-hours; to the national economy, in reduced output, because ill people cannot perform at their optimum; and to taxpayers, who will have to bear the burden of the increased numbers demanding free health services.

And it is all likely to happen again which, of course, is a great shame, given that there was hope some time ago that the cycle had been broken.

At the start of this decade, when Arnold Bertram was the responsible minister and the People's National Party still formed the Government, there was a grand announcement of a US$35 million loan from the World Bank for a solid waste management project.

Place of corruption

The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) was formed and modern landfills were to be developed.

For a time, there was form, which eluded the substance, because we lacked the will, and landfills are among the kind of places where the filth of cronyism and corruption can easily prosper. Perhaps, it ought not to be surprising that the NSWMA was a place where a former contractor general accused the management of almost going out of their way to breach government procurement guidelines.

It cannot be beyond the capacity of Jamaica and Jamaicans to operate a modern landfill where waste management is a science and practised in accordance with environmental norms. And perhaps, too, it can be a place where no troughs are established among the filth.