Over the past ten years, clouds of dust from a rice mill has enveloped their homes and caused health problems, residents of Cane Grove, Mahaica have said but the company says action was taken to keep the dust down and more measures will be undertaken soon.
Residents said they have sought the intervention of several agencies with no result and the attorney retained to represent them in a court matter involving the mill has avoided them and is refusing to return the file. Recently, they sought the assistance of the Alliance For Change (AFC) and the matter was raised at a press conference and last Friday, they protested in front of the Ministry of Health.
“The dust fly day and night”, resident Makhanlall Birbal told Stabroek News. “We suffering with this thing for about ten years. We can’t bear this no more”.
Residents have said that they had previously sought the assistance of former Agriculture Minister Satyadeow Sawh, Navin Chanderpal in his capacity as the Science and Environment advisor in the office of the President, President Bharrat Jagdeo and also PPP presidential candidate Donald Ramotar, all to no avail. They have also said that letters have been sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“Nobody isn’t doing nothing. Nothing at all”, Dindial Balkissoon said. The residents said that they had filed proceedings in the High Court against the rice mill owner through attorney and PPP parliamentarian, Anil Nandlall. However, they said that repeated attempts to solicit from him the headway made in the case have been futile. They have said that they sought to retrieve the file from him in order to seek other legal guidance. However, according to them, Nandlall has not returned the file.
During the protest on Friday, one disgusted resident, who along with others wore ventilators, stated that “we eat with dust, sleep with dust, wear dust, everything with dust…”
But a company representative, while not denying that dust has caused some problems in the past, told Stabroek News that the company has implemented actions ordered by the EPA. He recalled yesterday that the mill was purchased in 2000 and from that period to 2002, two dryers and some storage bins were built. He said that the residents had complained and in 2002/2003, on the orders of the EPA, dust collection systems were installed at the dryers.
The company representative said that between 2004 and 2006, both dryers were fully enclosed at a cost of $76M. He said that recently, the operation expanded and another dryer was constructed and completed last March.
“This dryer was fully enclosed a week ago”, the representative said. He said that this cost over $36M. “From then to now, the dust has reduced (a) significant amount”, he said. He said that before the dryer was fully enclosed, a sprinkler system had been put in place.
In addition, the representative pointed out that the area is an agricultural area and trucks during harvest time, bring in mud which dries during the dry weather, contributing to the dust problem. “Anything to do with paddy, you get some dust”, he noted.
The man said that the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) has been monitoring the situation. The dust pollution is not as much as the residents claim and with the enclosure of the third dryer, it has reduced significantly, he said.
Further, the representative said, sprinklers are installed at the silos to keep the dust down and the GRDB has said that they have to fully enclose these as well. He said that they will be starting this by the end of this week or early next week. He said that he has promised the GRDB and the residents that by July the first silo will be fully enclosed with the remainder completed in November.
Meanwhile, last Wednesday, a GRDB representative, an EPA representative and a representative of the Rice Producers Associa-tion visited the community. Birbal said that the EPA representative visited his home and told his wife to clean promising that they would visit last Thursday and Friday to check the situation. He said that the owner of the mill, Fayuz Hack also accompanied the EPA representative. But the EPA did not visit his home to check although other homes were checked, Birbal said.
