Present at the launching ceremony, held at the Government IT Centre, was the Minister of Health John Maginley, General Manager of the NSWMA Denise Roberts, Chief Health Inspector Lionel Michael and Dorbrene Omarde, chairman of the NSWMA Board and other members of the NSWMA management team.
The Website was created in conjunction with the NSWMA, the government’s IT Centre and the Ministry of Health.
Maginley said the Website had been in the works since 1999, with the employment of the first environment educator. He said although the gestation period of the programme was long, it was only in the pursuit of perfection.
O’Marde marvelled at how long it took things to come to fruition at the NSWMA. He said although this was a great accomplishment, he could only see it serving a small section of the population and advised the management to intensify communication strategies with the rest of their customers.
Maginley countered O’Marde’s statement by stating that with the prevalence of Internet usage, especially among the young, the NSWMA could expect steady traffic on the site. “The objective of this Website is to facilitate increased information dissemination and the establishment of a new portal for communications to the public,” Maginley said.
Luxmore Edwards, senior networking engineer said the development of the Website was in accordance with the government’s agenda to develop e-government.
Introducing the site, Francis said it would readily allow students and teachers to access information about waste management authority and would be a valuable research tool. There is a page about the NSWMA’s past and future projects, garbage collection schedule, a Kid’s Corner, profiles on the staff, details about the Authority’s operations, both in Antigua and in Barbuda, and a section for press releases.
A major inclusion on the site is the online complaint and request form for customers. “Communication between the public and ourselves is considered critical and utmost to our operations. With this online complaint form now, persons … in a real-time scenario can submit their first name, contact information, as well as their home address to direct us to their home, as well as the category of the complaint,” Francis said.
The complaint form will be sent to an e-mail address, which will be checked throughout the day, so Francis concluded that this format would be better and faster than coming in person to file a complaint.
The partners of the NSWMA will also be highlighted with links to their sites, such as the Environment Division and the Environmental Awareness Group.
Spencer said now that the site is up; the challenge would be in maintaining it and refreshing it to keep it current.
Autor: Nikisha Smith
Quelle: AntiguaSun, 27.02.2006
