Thick smoke emanating from the Mandela Avenue landfill over the past several days continues to cause severe discomfort to residents living in the vicinity.
When Stabroek News visited the site yesterday the dump was smoking; an excavator was turning up the contents while a man with a hose aided by a Hyundai pump sprayed water in an effort to douse the smoke and flames that would spring up around the area.

Princes Street residents yesterday had a barrage of complaints for this newspaper. One woman said that she recently went over to the dump and saw that asbestos was being dumped and burnt there. She said that she also saw parts of human feet which were apparently dumped there after being surgically amputated.

The smoking landfill yesterday.

The woman said that if she had somewhere to go she would without hesitation as the smoke is posing a serious health risk to her and her family.
“When a circle breeze blow it’s horrible…you can feel the smoke and nastiness in yuh stomach.”

Another man down the street said that his wife delivered a baby eight days ago and there is nowhere else to take the child.
“We have made numerous complaints, called the Ministry of Health all over but they keep referring you to somewhere else…no one is taking us seriously.” “We even tried calling PAHO but you can’t get through to anyone there,” the man lamented.

He showed this newspaper a number of bottles containing medicine that he has had to buy for his children who continuously suffer from one ailment to another-diarrhoea, chest colds and asthma- just to name a few. He also told Stabroek News that asbestos was being dumped there.

The problem of the landfill catching afire and the smoke affecting residents is an ongoing one. Methane, which is produced from the waste material at the dump, combusts, producing flames that burn underneath the refuse. Even when it rains heated material remains under the heaps and the flames start up again when the place becomes hot.