DEPUTY Mayor Patricia Chase-Green believes that the Haags Bosch sanitary landfill site is in urgent need of attention, so that it could render a more efficient service to the public. 

“It is a burning issue, and it [Haags Bosch] must be looked at seriously,” Chase-Green told the Chronicle in an invited comment yesterday.

The Haags Bosch sanitary landfill site, located aback Eccles, on the East Bank of Demerara, had replaced the Mandela dumpsite in Le Repentir Cemetery and was a project funded by an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) US$18M loan.
It was intended to serve 15 surrounding Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs), and accommodate the possible disposal of health-care discards and other hazardous materials.
With the site recently coming in for strong criticism from many quarters, Chase-Green said proposals for recycling and difficulties faced by the City Council must be taken to the new minister under whose ambit the project falls. This would be Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan.
“Our recycling plan and the future of Haags Bosch have to be discussed with him,” Chase-Green said, as she noted that Georgetown Mayor Hamilton Green will have to meet with Minister Bulkan at the earliest possible date on the issue.
Chase-Green acknowledged, though, that the minister is new and ought to be given time to settle in, so that he could become thoroughly familiar with the issues.
Chase-Green said to her knowledge, the site at Haags Bosch was not constructed with the intended design that was proposed many years ago. It was supposed to be a state-of the-art facility. “Whatever happened to the money for Haags Bosch I can’t say. But it must be seriously looked at,” she said.
Chase-Green said she would love to see an incinerator back in action, as she could recall the days when “Old Smokey” did a good job with regard to the garbage in the city.
Meanwhile, Public Relations Officer of City Hall and Executive Director of the Environmental Community Health Organisation (ECHO), Royston King, recently said in a statement that the issue of solid waste remains a sore one, not only in the city, but throughout Guyana.

“One sanitary landfill site nearly eight miles from the city of Georgetown; no holding area or facility; no continuous environmental and public health education programme and an abundance of non-biodegradable materials, all facilitate mini dump sites in every ward of the city. The landfill site is very defective and needs urgent attention,” King observed.
He said efficient collection is a challenge to the city and the indiscipline of some citizens signals the need for greater enforcement of compliance with litter laws.