By Claudia Gardener, Gleaner WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
OVER EIGHTEEN hundred (1,800) rats have been killed in the town of Lucea, Hanover, since the parish's health authorities declared war on the town's rat population through it aggressive Rodent Eradication Programme, which was launched five weeks ago.
Speaking at last Thursday's sitting of the Hanover Parish Council, in Lucea, Derrick Storer, the Chief Public Health Inspector for the parish, told the council that in the five weeks since his department had started setting rat bait under the Rodent Eradication Programme, their tabulation has shown that some 1879 rats have been killed.
"The Rodent Eradication Programme has run its five- week course and at the end of it, we can report that the entire town of Lucea was extensively baited and that over 1879 rats were killed," Mr Storer told the council. "This phase of the programme is now at an end, because the funds have been exhausted."
Despite being reasonably pleased with the success of the eradication programme, Mr. Storer said there is no room for complacency, stating that there should be no let up in the campaign to rid the town of the rats. In asking for a follow-up programme of re-baiting of the rats, he said killing 1879 rats is no indication that the town is now free of the rats.
For years, the town of Lucea has had a chronic rat problem, but things have gotten worse within recent times due to the increasing numbers of dirty drains, garbage-filled gutters, the proliferation of new supermarkets and the presence of derelict building, such as the now defunct Cliff Theatre, which is in a state of disrepair.
During the first half of this year, the Health Department and the Hanover Parish Council both came under fire from the Hanover Parish Development Committee (HPDC), which accused both bodies of being nonchalant and not doing enough to solve the rat problem. The HPDC also called on Mr. Storer and the then Mayor of Lucea, Councillor Lloyd Hill to jointly tackle the problem as a matter of urgency.
The massive rat kill, consider the biggest ever in the history of the parish, has drawn mix reaction from residents of Lucea. According to Nerris Hawthorne, the new Chairman of the Hanover Parish Development Committee (HPDC), while she was expecting a large figure, she knew now that the size of the rat population was definitely underestimated.
However, while admitting that he was pleased that a the Rat Eradication Programme was now in place, Ian Wilson, a farmer of Bulls Bay District, told the Gleaner that he was not impressed by the number of rats killed as he felt that the vast majority of the rats were still out there roaming the town."Mi no impress because about 10,000 more rat a roam di town and about 5,000 a dat inna di Cliff Theatre," Wilson said. "Dem must set rat bait inna di Cliff Theatre too. The rats have been living in there for years. That is where the Health Department must go next." . '
