Residents in the vicinity of the Princes Street dumpsite may be faced with ongoing woes as the only solution thought of so far is to mobilize equipment to tackle sporadic fires which have generated noxious smoke that has blanketed parts of the city.
A meeting was held yesterday to discuss the situation at the dump. Those present included Minister of Local Government Kellawan Lall, Minister of Public Works Robeson Benn, Mayor Hamilton Green, Deputy Mayor Robert Williams, city Solid Waste Director Hubert Urling, and head of the coordinating committee for the new landfill project at Haag Bosch, Walter Willis and other top officials.
Following this meeting Lall told the media at a press conference that he had instructed that the municipality mobilize all its equipment and machinery to deal with the situation at the dump.
At a press conference Green held earlier yesterday, he had said that the municipality does not have the resources to deal with situation, so what can they do?
Other initiatives on the agenda to deal with the dump are to stop “pickers” from entering the area and to “isolate” the methane-fuelled fires, which he said are occurring at the north–western end and to put them out.
On Tuesday, two NGOs, the Guyana Human Rights Association and the Guyana Citizens’ Initiative said that the situation at the dump site had the makings of a major catastrophe. They called for immediate action to bring the site under control. Reports on the situation at the dump have been carried by Stabroek News and other sections of the media in recent weeks.
Earlier Urling had said at the City Hall press conference that keeping ‘pickers’ out of the dump is virtually impossible. “There’s no fencing and the human resource on the ground is just not adequate,” Urling said.
While Lall charged that the Solid Waste Department and the task force that was set up when the dump had been on fire before were not dealing adequately with the escalating problem, the mayor reiterated that the city does not have the resources or the technical competence to effectively handle the situation.
Green said at his press conference that solutions to the problem were to be discussed at the meeting; but Lall told the media that the local government and public works ministries will step in within 24 hours if the council does not bring the matter under control.
In the meantime the dump continues to pose a major health hazard, as methane gas builds up below tonnes of garbage at the 15-year-old landfill, and an explosion is not out of the question, Green said. He had said the same thing seven years ago.
Yesterday morning thick smoke from the dump spread as far out as Shirley Field-Ridley Square and Guyhoc.
As reported in an earlier edition of the Stabroek News Lall had said that the only foreseeable solution to the problem is to deposit waste at another location. The development of a modern landfill has been talked about for years at Eccles but stalled by bureaucracy.
Since December 2001, Stabroek News had reported on a stalled project between Guyana and the IDB for a new site. Government engineer Walter Willis had said then that the reason for the lengthy delay was “shortcomings in the design of the site plan.”
Willis noted yesterday that invitations for bids for the project are to be out by next month.
It is hoped that by mid-January next year a CO (Contractor/Operator) will be on the project. Willis said that preliminary works are to be done so that the area will meet “universal standards” before an international contractor takes on the project. The access road to the site, which begins from the Industrial area on the Eccles public road leading in some two and a half miles has to be constructed, and drainage of the site is also to be done.
Addressing the concerns of Eccles residents over a landfill in their vicinity, Lall said that the Haag Bosch facility will be nothing like the one at Princes Street. “The design meets international standards,” he told reporters. Willis said that there will be drainage control and standard systems will be put in place to “mitigate the risk of combustion.”
Meanwhile at the Princes Street dump efforts have been made to capture methane gas but the project has been stalled, “for lack of inves-tors,” Urling told Stabroek News.
The solid waste department has laid gas vents in some 18 acres of the older part of the dump that is closer to Mandela Avenue. However mechanisms to actually collect the gas and channel it into cooking gas or electricity is lacking. Urling said that investors are needed for this aspect of the project.
The area where the vents have been laid is no longer being used for dumping and has been capped – clay has been placed on top to promote vegetation and prevent water from seeping into the matter below.
