SEVERAL persons residing in the vicinity of the Mandela Landfill Site in the Le Repentir Cemetery are complaining bitterly of its effects, while officials supposedly guarding their interests seem clueless and unable to provide any substantial information on the current state of the site. The Guyana Chronicle visited some of the residents at their homes last Friday and they all spoke out on the health threats they are exposed to on a daily basis as a result of the over-used garbage facility.
This newspaper met 81-year-old Elaine Taylor, a resident of Savage Street, North East La Penitence for approximately 23 years, as she was on her way to the East La Penitence Health Centre for medical treatment.
Mrs. Taylor firmly believes that her ailment arose as a result of the deplorable conditions existing at the landfill site. “Right now I feeling sick, sick, sick…I don’t normally sick.”
She further lamented that the smell emanating from the site forces her to leave her home and spend time elsewhere at times.
Meanwhile, Director of the Environmental Health Unit of the Health Ministry, Dr. Ashok Sookdeo, said the department has not yet become involved with the issues surrounding the expired facility but will not fail to intervene if there is an outbreak of disease or some other disaster.
Another resident, Charles Mars, residing in Lord Street, North East La Penitence for the past 18 years, said his two children are often sick because of having to endure the effects of the site.
Mars said he is just fed up with the situation but has to remain at his home because he has nowhere else to go. “If you visit my house, you will see that it is full of medication. The smell is terrible. There is torture when the rain falls and when it smokes.”
In the first place, Mars said it was a bad idea for a garbage site to be established in the heart of the City as this puts the lives of people in its environs at risk.
Mark John, another resident of Savage Street, told this newspaper that the site is a breeding ground for rats, mosquitoes and other harmful insects. He added that tuberculosis and other illnesses can result from the conditions existing at the site and called for its immediate replacement.
Fifty-year-old Janet Ancrum of Walker Terrace, West La Penitence, commented that the situation is currently out of control and she is calling on the authorities to do something about it. “When it (the landfill) smokes, the scent is everywhere in the house,” she said.
Director of Solid Waste Management with the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), Mr. Hubert Urlin told this newspaper, recently, that a crew was working to completely stop the site from smoking.
He could offer no further comment on the situation but Deputy Mayor Robert Williams maintained that the new landfill, at Haags Bosch, East Bank Demerara, will become operational by February 1.
M&CC Chief Environmental Health Officer, Mr. Kenneth Stephen, said he has not been there in recent times and would not be able to comment on the situation .
Several independent workers on the site told this newspaper last week that garbage space will run out by Christmas in view of the increased amount of refuse being dumped there on a daily basis.
According to them, a number of tombs in the burial ground are now covered by rubbish and relatives of the deceased can no longer visit where they are buried. They said trucks which deliver garbage twice a day are now taking double what they previously transported and the system can no longer be monitored, as the site now takes in at least 100 tonnes daily.
The Haags Bosch project is being funded by an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) US$18M loan and, when completed, would also serve 15 surrounding Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs), for the possible disposal, too, of health care discards and other hazardous materials.
The Mandela landfill was established in 1994, on a 10-acre plot, to accommodate refuse, primarily from Georgetown, East Coast and East Bank Demerara, as well as some areas on West Bank and West Coast Demerara.
It was supposed to have been closed since 2006 after having been declared to have outlived its usefulness.