Some five years after the contract to prepare the Haags Bosch sanitary landfill in Eccles, East Bank Demerara was awarded to BK International in association with Puran Brothers Disposal Service, the Ministry of Local Government announced a November 15 completion date, at a press conference Friday last.
The landfill originally had a completion date of a year.
Minister Norman Whittaker stated that operation and construction aspects of the project continue and work has improved significantly. “We have met with the contractor, expressed our concern with the pace of construction,” Whittaker said, “and we have a revised completion date for the works, November 15, 2014.” He said the ministry has been informed by its officers who had visited the project site that works continue on the pump station, the force main and the drainage layer of cell number one. He further mentioned that the ministry had engaged the contractor, “at the level of our Solid Waste Manager Gordon Gilkes and his team.”
Whittaker acknowledged that there had been complaints from nearby residents with respect to the odour emanating from the site, from time to time. The team that engaged the contractor said it was determined that the odour had to do with the level of compaction and cover of the cell in the area. “And so we continue to work with the contractor to bring about the desired improvement,” he said, adding that the contractor was asked to submit a plan with respect to those operations at Haags Bosch.
Following the award of the $9,729,822 contract in November 2009, then local government minister Kellawan Lall had announced that the new landfill site would have been ready in a year. However, Haags Bosch was only opened in February 2011.
The landfill is designed to take in the waste of the entire Region Four, from Soesdyke to Mahaica, and to ensure that no foul odour emanates. It was also intended to make provisions for the trapping of fire-causing methane gas.
