THE Haags Bosch Landfill Site ought to be seen as a “significant improvement” over what used to happen at the Mandela Landfill Site in Le Repentir Cemetery, Minister within the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, Mr Norman Whittaker, observed yesterday. “So while we see the garbage on the streets and in the drains, we must see the improvements Haags Bosch has made,” the minister said at a press conference yesterday at the ministry’s Fort Street, Kingston boardroom. Some of the blame for the garbage pile-up in the city has been heaped upon the early closure of the Haags Bosch Landfill Site, located aback Eccles, East Bank Demerara. But Whittaker pointed out yesterday that a cost is attached to every opening hour, and that any costs for an extension of the opening hours must be borne by the City Council.

“The contractors who operate there (on the site) expressed the view that they should not be made to bear that cost, a view I concurred with because, ultimately, it is the City Council that has the responsibility for collecting and moving the garbage.

“And so we forwarded that to the City Council, and the understanding is that any extension of the hours, they will bear that cost. [But] they said they are not in a position to finance the extra three hours that are required, that was requested per day,” the minister said.  

At a previous presser, Whittaker had said that for the period February 2011 to September 2012, a total of 196,306.28 tonnes of waste had been accommodated at the landfill, which works out to an average of 332.87 tonnes of waste being dumped daily.

He said the landfill was designed to accommodate 250 tonnes of waste daily, and statements that the site has been accepting double that amount are utterly untrue.

Officials of City Hall have blamed the early closure and distance from Georgetown for the garbage pile-up in the city.

Councillor Patricia Chase-Green, 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.”

Chase-Green pointed out that the Mandela Dumpsite, formerly located in the Le Repentir Cemetery, used to be open for garbage collection on a 24-hour basis, while the 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 would 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, they would resort to dumping at 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 been closed opt to dump their refuse in the city, too.

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 wastes.