A SANITARY landfill facility, along with an access road to it, is slated to be constructed during 2019 at Bel Vue, East Berbice-Corentyne to allow for the closure of the Esplanade dumpsite, Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan announced recently.

Speaking during a budget presentation in the National Assembly lately, the minister pointed out that the closure of the said site is important to protect citizens from the potentially harmful health impact that results from sporadic fires and other public health hazards.

The 2019 programme also includes the tabling of a Solid Waste Management Bill and the promulgation of an integrated waste management strategy, Bulkan said.

The Bill, first developed in 2014, featured a centralised model to sanitation management. “This is not in keeping with the local empowerment and service decentralisation agenda. In collaboration with UNDP, the revision of the Bill and strategy was advanced to have in place a model which takes account of the responsibility of LDOs in the delivery of this service in the communities,” Bulkan explained.

He said sanitation in 2019 will continue to feature a robust programme of awareness and sensitisation on sustainable sanitation practices which will be designed and developed in consultation with the various communities.

“The Sanitation work programme aims to build capacity and strengthen institutions related to sustainable environmental management practices at the local level. The programme includes but is not limited to work on a number of landfills in our new capital towns, improving the facilities at Haags Bosch, construction and upgrade of site facilities and municipal sanitary landfills, and developing wastewater management capacities,” Bulkan stated.

According to him, the 2018 work programme for sanitation management included promoting effective management of solid waste across communities and facilitating a public education campaign on sanitation management.

In this regard, he said the Haags Bosch Sanitary Landfill Site was upgraded to include a leachate treatment facility and a demonstration site for sanitation management. “This site now bears no resemblance to the one we inherited in mid-2015. The perennial complaints of residents in adjoining communities of foul odours are a thing of the past, another piece of evidence of the transformation that this Budget speaks of,” Bulkan stated.

To date, he said there have been five tours by schools, along with tours by media houses and other groups. “I would urge…the opposition to pay a visit to this site and see for yourselves if this is hype or reality.”

Meanwhile, Bulkan said the access road at Rose Hall to the landfill facility has made satisfactory progress in its upgrade.

Designs for sanitary landfill sites in Bartica, Lethem and Mahdia will shortly be completed, he informed, which will provide for improved management of solid waste in these municipalities.

The Ministry of Communities had signed three contracts totalling $125M in 2017 as part of an effort to bolster the solid waste disposal programme in outlying regions.

The signed contracts cover the designing of sanitary landfills at Bartica, Linden and Mahdia, which includes waste-profile studies of the three towns and recommendations for resource recovery and recycling programmes.

The landfill design incorporates topographic surveys of the sites, access to the site, site security, waste disposal and fill management, leachate management, landfill gas management, operations and maintenance manuals, environmental audits and environmental monitoring and management systems.