In the coastal Jamaican parish of St James, a targeted cleanup operation is now underway in Montego Bay to clear a stubborn waste backup that has plagued the outlet of South Gully for months. A specialized team from the island’s National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) has mobilized heavy construction equipment to the site, including a powerful excavator and multiple tipper trucks, to tackle the accumulated debris that has built up at the waterway’s opening. The waste clogging the gully ranges from deposited silt and single-use plastic products to a range of other discarded materials that have collected over years, with a large portion of the buildup dating back to a recent major storm.
Audley Gordon, the top executive director of NSWMA, was on site at the cleanup location this week to directly oversee the progress of the work, which is aimed at eliminating one of the most visible environmental blights on the popular western Jamaican city. This intervention is being carried out as part of the authority’s formal Debris Management Programme, a long-running initiative designed to address storm-related waste accumulation across the island.
The entire cleanup effort traces its urgency back to Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall on Jamaica on October 28, 2025. The storm left a path of widespread destruction across much of the island’s western region, washing large volumes of sediment, discarded waste, and structural debris into natural waterways including South Gully. While smaller cleanup efforts addressed the most immediate flood risks after the storm, the large-scale clearance of the gully’s outlet has been scheduled as a one-time targeted operation to resolve the long-standing backup. Project organizers estimate that the operation will remove more than 10 full truckloads of accumulated debris from the site by the time work is completed, clearing the waterway outlet and restoring better drainage for the surrounding area.