Minister Whittaker “disturbed” with BK over Haags Bosch

Sep 21, 2013 News

Norman Whittaker, Junior Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, yesterday, said that he is disturbed with the pace of which construction is ongoing at Haags Bosch Sanitary Landfill in Eccles, East Bank Demerara.
At a press conference held in the Ministry’s boardroom in Kingston Georgetown, Whittaker told reporters that construction that is being carried out by BK International is about 65 percent complete.

Junior Local Government Minister, Norman Whittaker

He was at the time speaking on behalf of Minister Ganga Persaud who left before his turn to deliver remarks. When asked at what percentage of completion he would have liked the work to be at, Minister Whittaker replied-”100 percent”.
The waste disposal project is behind schedule. When it began in February of 2007, Haags Bosch was scheduled to be completed by August 13, 2013.
It is now a month past that deadline, and Whittaker said that he is not hopeful that a December 1, completion date will be met.
The Junior Minister said that there are some “grappling issues” to be dealt with as it relates to the works ongoing by BK International.
Whittaker spoke about inadequate compacting, and the reports received about odour affecting surrounding communities.
At another press briefing in May, Senior Minister, Ganga Persaud was reported as saying that some $732M would be expended this year on several aspects of the Haags Bosch landfill site project.
Of that amount, $300M would be utilized to complete works at the location, while procuring trucks, and receptacles and constructing a holding facility in Georgetown are on the Ministry’s agenda.
According to Persaud then, the Haags Bosch landfill site’s cell one is currently being used, developed, and “is a work in progress”. That work on the cell will cease only when it no longer has the capacity to accommodate more waste.
He had explained that with proper compaction, the capacity of the cell would keep increasing; no works are being executed on other cells, since it would not be practicable to leave ditches.
At the same forum, Gordon Gilkes, Project Coordinator, added that the cell has the capacity to retain waste for about four to five years. The landfill site receives about one million tons per year, so residents were advised to reduce waste.
It was noted too that as of May last, in excess of US$10M was being dispersed under the US $18M Inter-American Development Bank-funded project.
Minister Persaud was at the time confident that the remaining US$7M would be sufficient to complete the project, which was inked in 2007.
The Ministry had intended to spend $20M for the completion of construction of its hazardous waste mechanism, while investing $42M in public awareness efforts.
The entity is to ensure that every citizen within the boundaries of the 15 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDC) and Municipality understands that solid waste management plays an integral part in ensuring a healthy environment and by extension a healthy nation.
Previously, the project had not been without problems. After the government’s supervising engineer, Walter Willis, clashed with BK International, Willis was removed from the project.
Since last year, Whittaker had said that the project should have been wrapping up, stating that somewhere along the line, some or most of the stakeholders have been failing to deliver on aspects of the project.
The names of the parties responsible for the delays were not disclosed at that time.
In 2012, stakeholders– Cevons Waste, Puran Bros and FH Disposal, BK International, IBA Consultant, GuyEnterprise, Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Region Four Regional Democratic Council (RDC,) the 15 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs,) the Mayor and City Council and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), met to discuss ways to help the project meet its target date of August.
This obviously has not been met.