LOCAL Government and Regional Development Minister Ganga Persaud has approved of new opening hours for the Haags Bosch Landfill Site, aback of Eccles, East Bank Demerara, from 08:00 hrs to 18:00 hrs. Georgetown City Councillor Patricia Chase-Green, who is performing the duties of Deputy Mayor, had written to the contractors and the Ministry advocating extending the hours to facilitate the disposal of more garbage from the capital.
Subsequently, she and Mayor Hamilton Green were invited to meet Minister Persaud and Minister within the Ministry Norman Whittaker, at their Fort Street, Kingston base.
It was following that meeting, on Wednesday, that Persaud informed reporters of the extension after requested by Green.
“The Ministry is committed to providing feedback, in a timely manner to the Council. We have said that we will analyse the new operation hours, giving time for its implementation and that will inform future decision-making with regards to the hours,” Persaud said.
Mayor and City Council (M&CC) officials, had, at times, blamed the early closure and distance from Georgetown of the landfill site at Haags Bosch, for the garbage pile-up.
Chase-Green had told a recent City Hall press conference that the garbage crisis is not a blame game. After discussions with Government and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Haags Bosch 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 noted.
Chase-Green pointed out that the Mandela Avenue dump site, which was located in Le Repentir Cemetery, used to be opened for garbage collection on a 24-hour basis while Haags Bosch operated only 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 had stated.
Chase-Green said the difficulty with those stipulations was that citizens, store owners in particular, would usually, gather their waste after 16:00 hrs and, with no trucks to pick them up, resort to dumping any place.
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 materials.