The temporary landfill site at Le Repentir Cemetery has been closed as steps are being taken towards opening a new cell at the Haags Bosch facility by midday today to ease a growing garbage problem in the city.
City Solid Waste Management Director with the City Council, Walter Narine confirmed yesterday that the gates to the temporary landfill had been padlocked earlier yesterday as access to the site has been completely closed off. The Le Repentir site had been reopened as a fire at Haags Bosch had curtailed the offloading of garbage there. Narine yesterday also stated that a task force has been set up with collaboration from the Guyana Fire Service, the City Council, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) to fight the fire. The task force is headed by Walter Willis. He said that the task force will provide a 24-hour service to combat the ongoing fire at the Haags Bosch landfill site on the East Bank of Demerara in hopes of opening another cell.
Narine is pleading with the public to be patient as they try their best to fight the fire and open the new cell. He also added that they will be working towards covering up the refuse at Le Repentir Cemetery so that there will be access to the roads again.
The decision to open one of the other cells at the East Bank site stemmed from residents around Le Repentir suffering from the refuse being dumped there since the Haags Bosch was off limits due to the ongoing fire and the Lusignan landfill was inaccessible due to the deplorable access road. It was related to Stabroek News that while works have started at the Lusignan site itself, the road still remains in a poor state. It was reported that Le Repentir site was to cater for waste from the large skip bins around the site but when Stabroek News visited the site on Monday, refuse was being dumped from all around the country.
The Ministry of Communities had blamed BK for the fire in a press release on Tuesday.
The release had stated that 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 noted.
Blame had been thrown at the Fire Service who allegedly did not provide adequate support to fight the fire in the early stages but the Ministry had since refuted such claims and stated that “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).
