Conditions are worsening by the day at the Princes Street landfill and citizens should not be consoled by plans outlined by the Director of Solid Waste Management, the Guyana Citizens Initiative (GCI) said yesterday.
In a press release the GCI said that “the rains have doused the fires, bringing some relief, but the mismanagement continues.”
The release said that GCI personnel visited the site recently and observed that the landfill management team was safely in a hut at Cemetery Road and Broad Street while scavengers were rummaging for needles, knives, tablets and syrups “destined no doubt for markets in the city and beyond.”
These items are dumped and loosely buried on the site daily in the presence of the litter pickers, the release said.
It added too that there is a large population of pigs that feast on the raw garbage. This could lead to the transmission of tapeworm infections if humans were to ingest pork from these infected animals.
The release made reference to a report in the January 20 issue of the Stabroek News where City Hall Solid Waste Director Hubert Urling had said that plans are on the table to place a clay cap on the last area where refuse was dumped and to better organize litter pickers in an effort to prevent the recurrence of hazardous fires and smoke at the Princes Street landfill.
The GCI said that citizens living in the dump’s vicinity and in South Georgetown should not be consoled by Urling’s statements as conditions have by no way changed. The release made reference to the fires at the site in 2008 when the GCI and the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) had drawn attention to the “dismal management at the site that had resulted in the offensive stench and fires and smoke that posed grave health risks to the residents.”
The two entities had then proposed a plan to dig a 15 ft-deep, 4 ft-wide trench around the perimeter of the dump, which should then be filled with truck loads of wet mud. The mud was intended to seal the sides of the burning dump which would then have to be soaked simultaneously by three 4-6 inch pumps. However, the plan was never heeded by those in charge of the dump. Meanwhile the release said further that judging from the comments made by Urling and government engineer Walter Willis the Haags Bosch site might not be opened any time soon. GCI said that until Haags Bosch becomes operable the Princes Street landfill needs to be managed responsibly. “This is no time for complacency and vague futuristic plans,” GCI added.
