Tipping fees to be implemented at landfill site

Jan 10, 2013 News

In the not too distant future tipping fees may have to be implemented in order to sustain the operations of the Haags Bosch landfill site after the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) loan would have expired.
This is according to Junior Minister of Finance, Juan Edghill.

One of the cells being used at the Haags Bosch landfill site.

According to Edghill very soon the $20M loan from the Inter America Development Bank will come to an end but the sustainability of the site is important, hence the implementation of the tipping fee.
“We have to sound the alarm that the M&CC as well as the Chairpersons and Councilors of all the NDCs that are bringing waste to this site must understand that that part of the agreement which you all agreed to at the time of the preparation of the agreement must be implemented.”
This agreement, Edghill said, stipulates that charges will have to be made for tipping fees to continue to pay for the operation of the landfill site.
“As a government we don’t intend to increase the burden on anyone or to increase taxation but the reality is there is a cost that is attached and in the write up of the program there is a tipping fee that was supposed to have been charged from the inception.”
However, according to Edghill, initially the Government was able to renegotiate the loan and was allocating monies from one component of the project and over the years the government was paying that tipping fee.
“The time is coming when there is no more money in the loan, so this will have to be a cost carried by the people of Guyana, the modules which would have to be developed, whether by the M&CC or NDC’s be it through the collection of taxes or a special arrangement based on the arranged sum, this needs to be discussed and we need to make this known,” Edghill noted.
He further pointed out that the sustainability of the landfill site in terms of payments and ensuring that the site continues to operate at expiration of the loan is based on the proper implementation of what is in the loan agreement about the tipping fee.
“We have sought to avoid this for a while but the time is approaching,” he reiterated.
He noted that already some private contractors for solid waste have been operating and have been charging private residents per barrel. However he noted that this will soon have to be formalized.