Haags Bosch early closure, location blamed for pile-up
OFFICIALS of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) are blaming the early closure and distance from Georgetown of the new landfill site, at Haags Bosch, aback Eccles, on East Bank Demerara, for the garbage pile-up in the capital city. Councillor Patricia Chase-Green, who is performing the duties of Deputy Mayor, said: “The garbage crisis is not a blame game. After discussions with Government and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), it (Haags Bosch Landfill) was supposed to be a state-of-the-art facility. That fell through for whatever reason and we ended up with what we have right now.”
She made the remarks while addressing the media at a City Hall press conference last Friday and her presentation surrounded the current deplorable garbage situation.
Chase-Green pointed out that the Mandela Dump Site, located in Le Repentir Cemetery, used to open for garbage collection on a 24-hour basis while Haags Bosch operates from 07:00 hrs to 17:00 hrs.
“The last load of garbage would have to leave Georgetown at least at 16:00 hrs and anything arriving after then will have to wait until the next morning,” she observed.
Chase-Green said the difficulty with those stipulations is that citizens, in particular store owners, would, usually, gather their garbage after 16:00 hrs and, with no trucks to pick them up, resort to dumping any place.    
Another issue she highlighted is that the piles of garbage on the streets do not only come from city residents, as collectors, who go to dump at Haags Bosch when the facility would have already closed, opt to dump their refuse in the city, too.
“The incompetence of the council reflects on the heads of ministers who are responsible. It is supposed to be a collaborative effort. So, if the City Council fails, the ministers also fail because they are our heads. They cannot just sit in their offices and throw the blame on us,” Chase-Green responded to criticisms heaped on the municipality recently. 
She proposed that the authorities consider extending the opening hours for the East Bank landfill so that more cleaning could be done in the city.
The Haags Bosch project was funded by an IDB US$18M loan and now serves 15 surrounding Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs), for the possible disposal, as well, of health care discards and other hazardous waste.
The Mandela landfill was established in 1994 on a 10 acres plot to accommodate refuse primarily from Georgetown, East Coast and East Bank Demerara and some areas on West Bank and West Coast Demerara.
It was supposed to have been closed since 2006 and was declared to have outlived its usefulness by August 20, 2008.