STAKEHOLDERS, key to the process of the Haags Bosch Landfill facility’s operation, gathered for a consultation yesterday at the Local Government Ministry in Kingston, to seek to bring a timely closure to the project.

Minister in the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, Norman Whittaker, Permanent Secretary (PS) Collin Croal, Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Juan Edghill and Representative Inter-Development Bank (IDB), Leslie Ann Edward opened the discussion, aimed at assessing the current position of the project and addressing the resolution of issues that may hinder its timely completion. The Haags Bosch project, which began in February 2007 is scheduled to be completed by August 13, 2013.
Minister Whittaker, addressing the discussion, expressed the need for the stakeholders present to “offer opinions, recommendations and observations with a view to advancing the work that still needs to be done and bringing conclusion to those works within the timeline.” He also questioned the diminishing of the drive and urgency among the stakeholders that, six years ago, resulted in the advocating of the project to provide a sustainable solution to solid waste collection and disposal problems in Georgetown.
Minister Whittaker said that by now, the project should have been wrapping up, and he noted that, somewhere along the line, some or most of the stakeholders have been failing to deliver on the aspect of the project for which they have responsibility. Every one present at the meeting has a role in the conclusion of the project, and it is imperative that each one live up to the expectation of those roles, Minister Whittaker said, and called on the stakeholders to use the forum to put forward suggestions on how to ensure the project’s completion.
While government has not been able to deliver on some of the expectations of the project in a timely manner, there has been vast improvement in waste collection in the city. Waste is being collected in a controlled manner, with organised waste-recycling, an improvement that was not afforded at the Mandela dumpsite.
This is the only sanitary land fill facility in Guyana and Minister Edghill admitted that it has been a learning curve, but that the government has been receiving praise for the facility from the IDB experts, consultants, contractors and external stakeholders, among others. “They are saying to us…we seem to know what we are doing…persons who would have engaged with us at the time of Mandela (dumpsite) to where we are now would have indicated the significant improvement there has been between Mandela and now,” he said.
Minister Edghill identified some areas that must be addressed in relation to the project. He listed compaction among these, and said that arriving at ‘real compaction’ is critical to prolonging the lives of the cell.
The Haags Bosch project is financed under a partnership agreement between the Government and the IDB, with the latter committed to providing a total funding of $18.07M for the completion of the project. The bank commenced disbursing the resources from 2007 and the project was due to be completed in five years.
With the project entering its 7th operational year, the IDB Representative said that the bank is pleased that the Guyana Government has seen the need to prioritise the issues and challenges affecting the closure of the project. She said this has been a concern, in light of the fact that just under half of the resources for the project remain undisbursed. The un-used resources have costs; an opportunity cost in terms of social programmes that require resources that the bank is unable to fund, as well as financial cost as the loan resources have an interest rate. Over the last year, the IDB has been providing technical support to the government to ensure the successful implementation of the project. IDB has also been providing training and capacity building skills to those persons managing the project.
Other stakeholders represented at the discussion were Solid Waste Collectors Cevons Waste, Puran Bros and FH Disposal, BK International, IBA Consultant, Guy Enterprise Public Relation Unit, Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Region 4 Regional Democratic Council (RDC,) the 15 Neighbhourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs,), the Mayor and City Council and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Government has been continuously engaging the stakeholders to ensure the delivery of the project in keeping with stipulated guidelines.