Disposal of garbage at a temporary landfill established by the Mayor and City Council at the Le Repentir Cemetery is to cease with immediate effect.
This is according to Mayor of Georgetown Hamilton Green.
At a press conference held at City Hall yesterday, Green said that after a meeting between representatives of the M&CC and Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan a decision was taken to open one of several cells at the Haags Bosch facility on the East Bank to act as a temporary holding site while the fire which has been burning at the facility is quelled.
The Mayor explained that out of sheer necessity a council decision was taken last weekend to begin using an area east of the Le Repentir Cemetery as a temporary landfill for some of the waste generated in the city.
“Operation will come to an end immediately at this site. Residents in that area have already suffered due to the previous housing of a site in that vicinity. To put our garbage there again would be a most backward step even though it is an emergency. The people in that area have suffered for years and it would be unfortunate to put them through another period of that unhappy occurrence,” the Mayor said.
Stabroek News reported yesterday that this temporary landfill was expected to cater only for waste from the large skip bins around the city including in those around the markets. However, when this newspaper visited the site on Monday, refuse from all around the city and as far as the west coast was being dumped at the site.
Most of this refuse was supposed to have been disposed of at the Lusignan Landfill site however several garbage truck drivers this newspaper spoke with said that the road to the Lusignan site was in such a state of disrepair that it was impossible for them to safely access the site.
This assertion was supported by Georgetown Solid Waste Director Walter Narine who said that five trucks had already broken down on the road in one day.
Yesterday, Mayor Green explained that a decision was also taken by the Minister of Communities to appeal to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure to have the road immediately repaired.
“Repairs are also to be done to Lusignan access road. Depending on how fast they can mobilise equipment and how the weather permits this repair will see the site being used shortly,’ Mayor Green said.
Later in the day, the Ministry of Communities explained in a press release that following a site visit by representatives of the Ministries of Communities and Public Infrastructure on December 29, 2015, a temporary holding area located at Haags Bosch has been identified to accommodate waste generated within the Municipality of Georgetown and its immediate environs.
This site, it said is “expected to be operationalized shortly.” Stabroek New also understands that an evaluation of the Lusignan access road has been completed and an estimate for its rehabilitation submitted to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure.
There is no indication of what time frame constitutes “shortly” nor any indication of where funds for the development of the holding site and rehabilitation of the road will be sourced.
Legal advice
Stabroek News has also been reliably informed that the Ministry of Communities is seeking legal advice from the Attorney General’s Chambers as to how the contractor BK International Inc’s — managing of the site is to be approached in relation to making a second cell operational.
Last week Stabroek News had reported that the Government of Guyana intends to appeal a court decision that the termination of a contract awarded to BK International to construct and manage the Haags Bosch landfill site at Eccles was hasty and unfair. Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan had said that the company is not welcome on the site.
“The administration is in the process of appealing that decision because we are dissatisfied with the performance of the contractor,” he said adding that BK International continues to occupy the site despite the desire of the administration who are dissatisfied with its management and performance. “He continues to squat on the site,” Bulkan declared.
Earlier, Bulkan had told Stabroek News that the matter was handed over to the Attorney General’s Chambers and it was working to have the company removed from the site due to alleged negligence and incompetence. The minister said that BK International “will be paid whatever is owned,” but quickly added that the jury is still out on whether the company was owed any money.
Yesterday, the ministry heaped blame on BK for the fire which continues to burn at Haags Bosch.
In a press release it said the contractor is “unable to extinguish the blaze, which started on the evening of Sunday, December 20, 2015…primarily because the contractor did not adhere to the Operations Management Requirements as stipulated under Section 15.6 of the signed agreement regarding fire prevention and firefighting.”
“Heavy grey smoke is currently polluting the atmosphere as a result of the burning of disposed unsorted waste. The site, which has been operating as a dumpsite from day one, is closed and can only be reopened when the situation is addressed. This unhealthy situation does not surprise the Ministry, owing to the poor management techniques and inadequate security measures, among others employed by the contractor. The aforementioned factors together with the landfill not being vented and the failure to provide daily earth cover have contributed to the significant build-up of methane gas; which when ignited continues to burn in an uncontrollable manner,’ the release notes.
While the Haags Bosch site Manager Lloyd Stanton has told Stabroek News that fire continues to burn because the fire service did not provide adequate support in the early stages of the fire and has since abandoned the site, the ministry makes a different claim.
According to their press statement “during the initial stages of the fire the contractor was assisted by the Guyana Fire Service, which requested the contractor to provide, in accordance with the conditions of the contract, additional resources needed to enhance their capacity to control the blaze yet despite numerous engagements with the assigned contractor the supply of the items was delayed. This hampered the Guyana Fire Service’s capacity to arrest the fire.”
These resources included the following: three high capacity pumps (6 inches diameter) to enhance the flooding of the site in several locations where the fire exists; two heavy-duty crane, drag-line or long boom excavators to excavate the waste pile in an effort to reach the bottom where the fire may be located and water hoses (6 inches diameter and 450-ft in length).
According to the Ministry of Communities it is monitoring the situation closely and partnering with the Ministry of Public Infrastructure in an effort to bring urgent relief to affected communities “since it is aware that residents of the neighbouring communities are being adversely affected.”
