By Vanessa Braithwaite

DAKOURA Creek, located at the Wisroc watershed in the Region 10 community of Linden, will no longer be under threat from various organisations which had previously dumped their garbage around its environs.The move to discontinue dumping was given by the officials of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who met with Region 10 officials and the owner of Cevon’s Waste Management, one of the entities culpable for dumping at the site.

The issue was raised after residents from the area sounded an alarm regarding the indiscriminate dumping of garbage at the watershed, from which water is sourced for the entire Wismar shore.

Region 10 Chairman Renis Morian had requested that Cevon’s and other entities, such as the hospital, discontinue dumping garbage at the watershed, which practice he had described as illegal.

Cevon’s owner Morse Archer has refuted the claim that his entity has been illegal dumping garbage at the watershed. His contention is that permission had been granted in the 2014 contract between his company and the Ministry of Legal Affairs to dump at the watershed.

Member of Parliament (MP) Jermaine Figueira, who represented the people of Linden in the meeting, said the issue was not about dumping at the site, but the way it was done. He explained that even though the contract did permit the dumping of garbage at the watershed, it had stated how dumping should be done, and Cevon’s had erred in this regard, hence breaching the contract.

Figueira alleged that Mr Archer blamed the indiscriminate dumping on the lack of revenue, since Cevon’s did not secure the monopoly contract to collect garbage in Linden.

Commenting on the breach, Mr Archer posited that there was no organised way in which the garbage was being dumped, and he contended that several organisations had been dumping garbage at that site, including the Mayor and Town Council.

The officials reached an agreement at the meeting to cease all dumping of garbage at the watershed, and in the interim, are intent on locating a suitable land filling site. Cevon’s, along with the M&TC, will tentatively dump garbage at the Kara Kara dump site. The council will be putting systems in place to repair the access road to the dumpsite, so that these entities will easily reach the location.

Mayor Carwyn Holland told residents that the administration will continue to fight for waste to be properly disposed of in Linden, since irresponsible dumping can result in a national epidemic.

He also posited that residents should commence better and safer waste disposal methods, such as recycling, which would bring in revenue to Linden.

“The garbage can benefit us, instead of affecting us,” he said. Any continuous dumping of garbage at the watershed will result in the council pursuing legal action against those found guilty.