Le Repentir landfill site set for closure next month - Finance Minister

Le Repentir landfill site set for closure next month – Finance Minister

Jan 20, 2011 News

The management of solid waste in the city has posed several challenges in terms of disposal. In this regard the Le Repentir landfill site will continue to receive solid waste until next month after which it will be completely closed in accordance with the Environmental Protection Agency regulations.
This disclosure was made on Monday by Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh.
He said that work on the access road to Haags Bosch has been completed whilst work on the landfill site is now expected to be completed and operations commence using a 6.5 hectare cell during the first quarter of this year.
A sum of $800M has been allocated to facilitate further works on the construction of the Haags Bosch sanitary landfill site, Dr Singh said. This, he speculated, will greatly enhance the city’s ability to cope with solid waste management and bring much needed relief to residents.
During the latter part of last year, Government was forced to render support to the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown, the entity under which the existing Le Repentir landfill site falls.
Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn, said last month that the existing problem at the site is mostly one which stems from poor management, adding that the unsanitary condition that prevails should have never occurred.
The recent intervention by Government was regarded by Benn as one which has yielded fairly satisfactory progress thus far.
He said, too, that plans are moving apace to ensure that the existing site is closed by the end of this month even as measures are put in place to have garbage taken to Haags Bosch, which is situated aback of Eccles, East Bank Demerara.
But as at the end of last month, City Mayor Hamilton Green had said that the Georgetown municipality was not given any official word from the government of the exact date by which the landfill site will be closed.
“This means that the municipality will remain burdened with the task of maintaining a dumpsite that is really a tragedy.”
Additionally, Green said that it appears as though some persons are attempting to throw the entire blame on the municipality.
Previously, he said, that the municipality was informed that the current site would have been closed by the middle of last year and that the contract awarded to Puran Brothers would have been accelerated to close and clean the two cells at Le Repentir site before handing it over back to the municipality. However, improvement and expansion of the cemetery remains a challenge to the council, Green lamented.
It was in recognition of the diminishing capacity of the landfill site and the fact that it was encroaching, that a request was made to Government, Green said, to utilise a piece of land on the East Coast of Demerara.
“We know the dumpsite is full and I knew of this other land space…but we heard that a friend of the Government has bought it. We have since started looking at a strip of land east of where the cemetery ends where burial was done some 50 and 60 years ago, but that would call for a lot of investment, because we would have to cut roads and drains…”
The state of the dumpsite, Green admitted, has caused the Le Repentir Cemetery to become a disgrace in itself. “If we can’t pay staff and pay NIS where are we going to get money to look at a cemetery?”
According to Green, he has been pleading with the administration for assistance for a long time to help address the existing landfill site problem even as he reiterated that the Council is short of money and equipment to help itself.
“We lack the money and machines…This is what the public should know.”
According to Green it was after realising that the municipality would not be getting the Haags Bosch site at the anticipated time efforts were made to meet with Minister Local Government and Regional Development, Kellawan Lall.
And since it was recognised that the then impending Christmas season would have created an onslaught on the landfill site, Green said that it was impressed on the Minister that the council would not have been able to adequately handle the situation, given its limitations.
However, nothing was done in order to abate the situation even then Green lamented.
The landfill site, he said, ought to have been closed years ago, but is still open through no fault of the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown.

Latest News

Le Repentir landfill site set for closure next month – Finance Minister

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | September. 30th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Uncertainty clouds Golden Jaguars’ Head Coach position as...

Greaves makes history with magnificent 151* to...

Dominica’s Olympic champion Thea LaFond-Gadson...

Julien Alfred named finalist for World Track...

Junior Sinclair replaces Kevin Sinclair in the CG...

Hamilton Green KO Football Championship starts...

Features/Columnists

Fingerprinting and Finger-Pointing

Rising Gun Crimes in the Caribbean: Urgent Action required by all

Jagdeo the genius, genie- don’t ask what kinds

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Le Repentir landfill site set for closure next month – Finance Minister

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | September. 30th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]