Illegal dumping continues to plague communities across Barbados, with environmental officials warning that offenders are discarding everything from household appliances and mattresses to animal carcasses, despite the risk of prosecution and fines.

Acting Chief Environmental Health Officer Euroline Welch-Drakes said illegal dumping remains one of the biggest environmental challenges facing her department, with hotspots emerging across the island, particularly in St Thomas and St Philip.

“Yes, we do have problems with illegal dumping,” Welch-Drakes said. “And yes, if we do see or find anybody that we can prove was the person who did the dumping, we can do one or two things: we can ask them to remove it and take it to the official site, which is the Mangrove Pond landfill, or we can take them to court.”