Government Engineer Walter Willis yesterday announced an ambitious six weeks’ period for closure of Le Repentir Dumpsite, a quarter of the time the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) had said it would take.
In a press briefing held atop the closed part of cell two at the dumpsite, Willis said he envisaged that the site could be closed within six weeks, “if we do it very quickly.
“We are preparing the engineering and topographic survey which I will get tomorrow [today] then I’ll be able to tell the bank, the IDB and the government exactly what is the estimate for closure but then we have to go back out to tender,” Willis said.
Willis, who is also project manager of the Georgetown Solid Waste Management Programme, explained that the remainder of cell two and cell three have to be graded, compacted, vented and covered with 18 inches of clay.
This is the method that was used to close cell one and part of cell two. Cell two was partially closed in 2009 and Puran Brothers had won the contract for that job. The cell had to be reopened when cell three began to overflow.
To combat the growing garbage and lack of space, the garbage was raised a few metres as well to avoid covering graves nearby.
In a press briefing last week, Director of the M&CC’s Solid Waste Department Hubert Urling had said that it would take about six months to close Le Repentir Dumpsite.
“The project was going to make an approach to the IDB for the closure of the landfill, removing the waste that is on the roadways, [and] capping cells two and three,” Urling had said.
Meanwhile, addressing concerns about the Haags Bosch Sanitary Landfill deteriorating into a state like Le Repentir, Willis said this was not likely to happen. The plume that may emanate from the new landfill would go “directly north east.
“The good thing about Eccles is that the landfill is two and a half kilometres from the nearest resident — about a mile and a half — if any body is to be affected I will be one of the first,” Willis said. “I live in Republic Park and the plume goes directly north east, which [is] where I live.”
As regards possible spontaneous combustion, Willis said: “The thing about spontaneous combustion is I never believed, and no one can convince me, that all the fires we had here [Le Repentir] were caused by spontaneous combustion.”
At the opening of the first cell at Haags Bosch at the start of this month, Willis said that in the event of a fire at the site, “the contractor in the civil works contract has to provide the fire pumps to pump from the storm water drains to fight any fire.”
While all forms of garbage are currently being dumped in the newly opened cell at Haags Bosch, plans are underway for a public awareness campaign to encourage sorting at home.
No litter pickers will be allowed at the new landfill.
“We want to propose separation at source at the first instance and this will entail additional funds for at least two waste receptacles at residences and separate trucks. So all those things we have to work out but we feel that separation at source of biodegradable non-biodegradable [would be best]…” Willis added.
A public awareness contract was signed with Guyenterprise Willis pointed out. The public relations company has already presented its inception reports and is currently having stakeholders’ meetings. Over the next weeks and months the public awareness programme on separating garbage will be rolled out, Willis added.
