Princes Street dumpsite out-of-control

Sep 11, 2008 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) and the Guyana Citizens’ Initiative (GCI) are concerned that unless steps are taken at once to bring the Princes Street dump site under control, a major public health catastrophe is in the making.

This conclusion emerged from independent investigations on the site itself and in communities in the immediate vicinity of the site by both organisations.

Despite the extensive distress detailed below, Mayor of Georgetown, Hamilton Green stated recently in a press report that there are neither financial nor technical resources to address the problems of the site either in the immediate or long-term.

By suggesting residents take their medical complaints to the Orange Walk or Lodge clinics, the Mayor is effectively also stating there will be no medical response to this disaster.

A further ruinous consequence of the out-of-control site is the serious commercial loss of value of the houses and properties in the affected areas.

Our two agencies are calling for a two-tier response. A medical intervention on an appropriate scale with requisite specialist skills is required immediately.

In the medium-term, a disaster response team comprising solid waste, environment and health experts must be commissioned to generate a solution before wider areas of South and Central Georgetown are engulfed in this growing disaster.

Since May, fires have started on the dump site that continue to smoulder. The smoke is affecting adults, children and babies in the households. Fires on site start in the evenings or early mornings.

Residents can hear small explosions. Residents state that some 18 years ago dumping began closer to Mandela Avenue, now it stretches all the way to Victor Street.

Fires are now moving west to east, Victor Street to Mandela. The old cemetery site used for burying the ‘poor dead’, the ‘still born’, the ‘executed’ (death row), ‘HIV people’ and ‘hospital waste’ is now filled with rubbish.

These fires produce a thick smoke and pungent stench which has been a source of not only irritation but also health risk to the residents, affecting not only the newborns in the area but all the other age ranges right up to the elderly.

Since the start of these fires, persons living in the area have experienced such symptoms as the appearance of rash on their skin, irritation of the eyes, persistent dry cough spells, shortness of breath, a sensation of suffocation, headaches especially in children, fever and bouts of vomiting.

In addition to these symptoms common to most of the residents, there has been a massive infestation of rats, roaches and flies, no doubt driven from their places in the dump into the yards and homes of the residents. Needless-to-say this poses an even greater health hazard.

One resident who recently underwent a throat operation conveyed her distress over the situation: instead of the expected speedy recovery, her condition is worsening as the constant dry cough spells brought on by smoke inhalation cause her pain in the very area of the sutures she has had from her recent operation.

Another described the frustration of having to buy medication for the rash on the skin of her children only to watch the rash appear again, as the smoking from the site continues.

In trying to fight the problem, the residents have attempted to contact several different authorities but their efforts have met with little success.

The Ministry of Health, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), City Council and PAHO, according to the residents, all avoid accepting responsibility for the correction of the problem, referring the problem to another agency.

Even the efforts to obtain help from the Guyana Fire Service were unsuccessful as the officers refused to enter the dump site.

According to the residents, the firemen claimed that the first time they went into the dump site several of the officers became ill and had to battle long and hard to combat the illness.

In the meantime, residents are forced to live with this problem until the ‘relevant authorities’ can be found to come to their aid.
Guyana Citizens Initiative Guyana Human Rights Association

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Princes Street dumpsite out-of-control

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