It was supposed to be the answer to the city’s garbage woes, foremost of which was the expired Le Repentir landfill that had so long polluted the lives of so many. But Haags Bosch is not working quite the way it was envisaged.
One recognizes that like most new systems it would have its teething problems. But the assumption was that teething problems would have allowed for corrections and tweaking until the situation was put to right. There is no indication that this is going to be the case, unless of course those affected really do something about it.
As we reported in our Sunday April 3, edition, instead of garbage collection improving with the opening of Haags Bosch, it appears that it has remained the same and in some instances it has worsened. Some city residents no longer have their garbage removed on time. Collection day comes and goes and bins remain outside their yards full to overflowing.
When City Council workers emptied garbage years ago, they would enter residents’ yards and remove their bins, empty them and replace them in the yards. When the contractors took over residents were told to place their bins outside on given days or they would not be emptied.
As it is right now, in some areas, when residents place their bins outside on those given days, the contracted collectors do not show up. Stray dogs and junkies (both plagues in the city) then attack garbage bins at night. The result is rubbish-strewn parapets next day which residents must clean up. Some residents say it is happening too often and they are fed up.
Garbage contractors have blamed the delays on the turnaround time at Haags Bosch – it takes longer to dump refuse and leave than it did at Le Repentir. It must be noted too that Haags Bosch is a bit further away than Le Repentir. Then there are the restrictive opening and closing hours. Le Repentir was usually open into the night. Haags Bosch operates for ten hours each day – opening at 7 am and closing promptly at 5 pm and this time is rigid. The operators do not allow any trucks in after the designated closing time.
Contractors complain of trucks having to head back to their parking garages laden with garbage, then head to Haags Bosch first thing the next morning before resuming collection. Of course this will shorten the collection period. And Director of the Mayor and City Council’s Solid Waste Management Department Hubert Urling agrees. He told this newspaper that turnaround time at Haags Bosch was about an hour and that because of the early closing, collectors, particularly those operating in the commercial district had to remove garbage earlier.
As is typical, the government engineer denies all of this. Mr Walter Willis, Jack of All Trades for the government in every engineering project and then some, insists that turnaround time at Haags Bosch is just ten minutes. While he did not really address the early closing of the site, he insisted that in the ten-hour period some 95 garbage trucks were able to visit the site, which is good enough for him it seems. And he added that garbage contractors’ trucks were ancient and broke down often, which he was adamant was the reason they could not make sufficient collection trips. It seems Mr Willis expects the contractors to import new trucks now that there is a new landfill site. And while this is perhaps a salient point, one would have to admit that the contractors would hardly be in a position to do so given that they city pays them in a most ad hoc fashion, and constantly owes them millions of dollars.
Perhaps Mr Willis does not live in the city, or if he does he has another way of disposing of his garbage. However, the majority of city residents are cognizant of the fact that were it not for these same ancient trucks, the city would really stink way more than it does at present.
Garbage collection in the city had long posed challenges and it had been posited since during the operation of Le Repentir landfill that perhaps it should not be done during the hours when heavy traffic was on the roadways. Huge lumbering garbage trucks often cause traffic jams as they navigate Georgetown’s mostly narrow streets. It would prove less problematic if the collection of rubbish were restricted to late in the evenings and very early in the mornings. And instead of constant denial perhaps Mr Willis et al should be looking into speeding up whatever work needs to be done to reduce the turnaround time at Haags Bosch; cognizant as he/they must be that its opening was speeded up to end the travesty that was Le Repentir. The outgoing Local Government Minister seemed not to care about the harm uncollected garbage could do to the city and its residents. Perhaps his replacement will be more proactive.
