Minister notes development at Haag Bosch Landfill site
Even as she expressed concern for the health of the garbage pickers attached to the Haags Bosch Sanitary Landfill site, Minister within the Ministry of Communities, Dawn Hastings-Williams has noted the developments at the garbage disposal facility.
During a recent tour of the land fill site, a team of media operatives was given an update on the improvements of the site.
“I observed for myself a wood and tyre shredder, which is a very good idea that will help reduce the volume of the waste that comes in through tire and pieces of wood.”
Minister Hastings -Williams also noted that systems need to be put in place to ensure that garbage is disposed in a proper manner, in keeping with the government’s vision of a ‘green and clean’ Guyana.
The Minister added that her Ministry will explore systems where the garbage is collected separately. “We can’t ask you to separate your garbage and we have one truck coming to your homes and they are dumping everything together. We will have to look at two separate trucks coming to collect the organic waste, and then another system where we collect the other waste.”
During her visit, Minister Hasting-Williams also pointed to need to improve the access road into Haags Bosch.
The US$20 Million InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB)-funded Haags Bosch landfill programme catered for the closing of the outdated and inefficient Le Repentir solid waste disposal site, in the centre of Georgetown.
This has been replaced by the privately-operated sanitary Haags Bosch landfill intended to serve both the city and surrounding East Bank, Demerara neighbourhoods. Four years after the opening of the much anticipated Haags Bosch Sanitary Landfill site, the Local Government Ministry had reported positive outcomes from the waste collection area which has been touted as a vehicle for a “cleaner and greener” Guyana.
The Local Government authorities have claimed significant benefits from the garbage dumping area following the closure of the unsightly and unhealthy Mandela landfill site, which seemed to be taking over Le Repentir Cemetery, where it was located at the time. The Haags Bosch facility is located aback of Eccles, East Bank Demerara. It is specially slated, according to authorities, to respond to various environmental and chemical changes that occur at dumpsites.
Each of the cells in the landfill site has an area of 6.5 hectares (16 acres) and can accommodate garbage for 10 years from Timehri, East Bank Demerara to Cane Grove, East Coast Demerara. Haags Bosch caters for 15 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils and Georgetown
The Clean, Green Guyana Campaign was administered by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development and funded by the Inter-American Development Bank.
(Kaieteur News)