Latest update November 21st, 2024 1:00 AM
Dynamite could resolve problem at dumpsite – City Mayor
Smoke bellows from a section of the dump site
City Hall, and by extension the city, is faced with a dilemma which, according to City Mayor Hamilton Green, may not be resolved without expert assistance.
The City Mayor’s comments came in light of another spontaneous combustion at the Le Repentir Dump Site.
This latest incident has proven to be more of a discomfort to residents in the proximity of the site than the previous eruption last month.
According to Mayor Green, although there have been reports that the latest disruption is as a result of the actions of scavengers that scour the site on a daily basis, he disclosed that the city has no evidence to substantiate this theory.
He, however, does not rule out that such acts may have led to the problem since it is a well known fact that “junkies” would attempt to access copper to make a sale by burning wire disposed at the site.
In order to prevent the continued operation of scavengers at the site, the Mayor disclosed that the assistance of the police force will be sought as early as next week.
However, at the moment, he disclosed that the council is unable to appease the situation since all of the council’s excavators are in a state of disrepair.
Mayor Green related that the Minister of Local Government has been informed of the situation and is expected to intervene in the matter by providing the council with gas masks and assisting in repairing the excavators.
Additionally, he revealed that plans have also been made by the Minister to source pumps from out-of-town areas to help with the quenching of the fire which, according to the Mayor, could be more than 30 feet below the surface.
In the meantime, he noted that the council is collaborating with the Ministry of Health to provide medical assistance to affected residents.
That collaboration will focus particularly on those residents with health problems such as asthma and if the need arises some residents may be asked to relocate, the Mayor said.
Health Minister Leslie Ramsammy revealed yesterday that health officials have been dispatched to the area and have been assessing the extent of the situation in the affected environs.
But even as a multifaceted approach to resolve the situation is being engaged, it is the belief of Mayor Green that there is a solution which, once undertaken by professionals, could put an end to the constant combustions.
According to him, with the aid of dynamite, the site could be blown up in order to locate the origin of the fire, thus allowing experts to effectively extinguish it.
This measure of intervention, the Mayor said, has been successfully undertaken in several countries and could very well be done here too.
In this regard, he said that the council has been seeking the assistance of the Pan American Health Organisation.
The council has, however, not been able to make contact with the local head of the entity since she is currently abroad.
Just last month, a raging fire had erupted at the site which had caused the council to deploy all necessary human resources and machinery to abate the problem.
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