Some city residents have complained that with the opening of the Haags Bosch facility their garbage is no longer being collected on time. Collectors blame the turnaround time at the new landfill site, but Government Engineer Walter Willis insists that turnaround time is only 10 minutes and the contractors’ “equipment ain’t good.”
According to Director of Puran’s Disposal Services Lakenauth Puran, “We getting a lot of problem at the site.” Puran said that while he has been able to maintain his collection services the new landfill “close off too early.”
Puran pointed out that the Haags Bosch facility closes at 5 pm and does not open late even if trucks are there. This often forces his drivers to travel with a truck full of garbage to the company’s garage on the West Coast until the next day.
Residents of certain wards in the city, particularly in the North and South Ruimveldt areas have complained that on their garbage collection day they often no longer see the truck. Because they are not sure when the truck will turn up, they are forced to leave their bins outside overnight, sometimes for a few days. When this happens, stray dogs and “junkies” (drug addicts) upturn the bins or take stuff out leaving an untidy mess behind, which residents are then forced to clean up.
Puran said the delay in collecting garbage is because the site is not being managed the way it should be. “Trucks are still sticking and the problem is getting worse,” Puran said. He said this is costing his company. He said every time one of his vehicles gets stuck in the pit an excavator has to pull it out. But many times the excavator would damage his vehicles and it is even “harassing [for] the engine. Managers at the site do not cooperate. Managers are saying that our trucks ain’t good.”
Puran said he plans to write to the relevant authorities to complain about this. Also complaining about the turnaround time was Cevon’s Waste Management. “When you used to spend 15 minutes at the old site, now you spending longer,” an official of the company said.
However Willis, who is the Project Manager of the Georgetown Solid Waste Management Project, in an invited comment, dismissed the contractors’ statements. He said that the site is operating as intended. “The facility is accepting the waste. It started with 250 tonnes and now it is up to receiving 400 tonnes a day,” Willis said.
According to Willis, in a ten-hour period, 95 trucks visit the facility to offload garbage. Nothing is wrong with the facility, he stressed. As for the sticking of the vehicles, Willis said it is not the facility rather “it’s because them equipment ain’t good.”
“I am 62 years old and some of the equipment they get older than me. Cevon’s equipment brucking down every 10 minutes at the site,” a somewhat irate Willis stated.
But even the Director of the Mayor and City Council’s Solid Waste Management Department is saying that turnover time is too long. Hubert Urling told this newspaper that turnaround time takes an hour and this is affecting garbage collection in the city.
Both Cevon’s and Puran’s are contracted by the M&CC to collect garbage. Urling acknowledged that some equipment did break down at the site, and when that happened turnaround time could be pushed to three hours.
Further, Urling said that because of the closing time of the facility, his department had to start collecting garbage in the business district earlier than when Le Repentir was open. His department, he says, has been alerting business persons about this so that the trucks can make it to the site before it closes.
Meanwhile, Urling said his department has noticed that there has been an increase in dumping around the city. He urged persons to desist from this since the department would have to find additional sums to clean it up and it becomes a serious burden on the council which is already cash strapped.
