The Ministry of Public Works has denied the claim by the Linden Mayor and Town Council and published by this newspaper yesterday, that the access road at Nooitgedacht poses a toxic threat to residents of the area, though it has not yet conducted independent testing of samples.
In a statement released yesterday via its official Facebook page, the ministry wrote, “… the claims made in this article are misleading. The information referenced is inaccurate, and there is no evidence of a toxic threat to the residents of Linden resulting from the materials used on the … road.” The statement skirted the fact that the materials used on the road were tailings from a disused aluminium plant.
The ministry stated that the report cited by Mayor Sharma Soloman, which pointed to unsafe levels of heavy metals such as arsenic, zinc, nickel, and chromium, was based on an unsigned document that did not correspond to actual samples taken from the road. It added that during a stakeholders’ meeting held on October 12, 2024, at the Watooka Guest House, Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill “was presented with these concerns and he committed to addressing them with the necessary urgency”.