With ongoing litigation and no 2015 budget allotment, government is making provisional arrangements should the Ministry of Public Infrastructure have to assume responsibility for the Haags Bosch landfill on the East Bank Demerara.
Stabroek News was made to understand that while acting Chief Justice Ian Chang is yet pronounce on whether the government can enter the site which is currently under the management of BK Inter-national, significant pro-gress has been made on how funding will be provided and where the equipment necessary to do the work will come from.
According to one source, the issue is very serious because there is no equipment readily available that the ministry can draw on and the Finance Ministry will have to issue supplementary provisions.
The source said the Public Infrastructure Ministry was still in the discussion phase but there was a greater sense of urgency to have a plan in place.
The source noted that while the issue is still awaiting a High Court decision, BK could simply decide to walk away from the Eccles landfill, and the ministry would then have to make an emergency request of the same contractor to continue managing the site until equipment is procured.
In June, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) had threatened withdrawal of its involvement in the landfill project over non-compliance with the loan agreement.
The IDB had signed a loan agreement with Guy-ana in 2007 for the sum of US$18.07 million for the project.
Project Director of the Georgetown Solid Waste Management Programme Gordon Gilkes had made a presentation to Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan in June stating that there was a plethora of non-compliant items in relation to the operations at the site.
He had stated that there “the absence of a treatment abatement lagoon, a landfill gas management system and the application of a daily cover to the landfill.”
In addition, he said, “soil excavated from several locations on site, intended for use as daily cover, was diverted, with the agreement of the executing agency, to another location for use not related to landfill management.”
In response the ministry put out a statement noting that the current “operation has resulted in negative impacts to both adjoining communities and the environment” and “the Minis-try of Communities is in the process of developing a remedial action plan to ensure sound environmental management at the Haags Bosch Landfill site.”
Amidst a war of words between BK boss Brian Tiwari and Bulkan in July, the ministry highlighted that to date a significant portion of expected works are yet to be completed.
BK had retorted that since the inception of the landfill, the contract between BK and the then Ministry of Local Govern-ment had many deficiencies.
Meanwhile, Minister in the Ministry of Finance Jaipaul Sharma, in a recent interview with Stabroek News said that there was indeed need for swift government intervention in the landfill project.
Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson, when asked specifically by Stabroek News recently if his ministry would be assuming the responsibility for Haags Bosch, said, “That is like a grenade that is going to explode in my hands.”
He alluded to the fact that there had been proposals to look at a different landfill site in the future while deflecting what the ministry’s involvement in the current project is expected to be.
