Local Government Minister Ganga Persaud has assured A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) MP Jennifer Wade that all of the necessary procedures were adhered to in the selection of land filling sites at St John-Firebrace, Zorg-en-Hoop and West of Burma Road.
Persaud was responding in writing to questions posed by Wade, who is also a regional councilor, about the criteria utilised in the selection of the sites. She also asked the minister if his ministry had held consultations with the residents of the selected areas, since the presence of the landfills would impact their lives.
In his response to Wade’s questions, which was circulated at Thursday’s sitting of the National Assembly, Persaud stated that the identification of the landfill sites commenced in 2004, as part of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Government of Guyana (GOG) Urban Development Programme (UDP).
He explained that several consultations were held across the Regional Democra-tic Councils (RDCs) and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) and municipalities in 2004 and 2005, following the appointment of a consultant in 2004. The minister said that chairpersons, councillors and other stakeholders in each of the local authority areas were invited to be part of the consultations.
After these initial consultations, additional consultations were held in the very authority areas, where 22 possible sites were identified in regions 1 to 10, with the exception of Region 4.
Persaud said the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) was called in to ensure that the selected grounds were owned by the state, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was paid to conduct the standard evaluation and tests necessary to determine the sustainability of the sites.
The result was that 15 sites were found by the EPA to be suitable, three of which were situated in Region 5. The minister said this information was communicated to the UDP in 2005.
Once the site selection was completed, Persaud said, the EPA developed a document which outlined the requirements for the operation of the landfill sites in the identified areas.
These actions and efforts, he said, culminated in the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Novem-ber 28, along with all the others which were signed in 2012. “I am very happy that in 2013, our country will have landfill sites across the other nine (9) administrative regions in Guyana and those sites will be operated in strict compliance with the EPA’s guidelines for such sites,” he wrote.
