Smoke, ash from paddy chaff still bothering Strathavon

The site at Strathavon where paddy chaff is being dumped by the Cane Grove Rice Mill. Smoke can be seen rising from the burning chaff in this Melissa Charles photo.
The site at Strathavon where paddy chaff is being dumped by the Cane Grove Rice Mill. Smoke can be seen rising from the burning chaff in this Melissa Charles photo.

By Melissa Charles

After numerous complaints to the relevant authorities, residents of Strathavon, Cane Grove, Mahaica are still affected by smoke and ash emanating from a paddy chaff dumpsite in the vicinity of their neighbourhood. The mill in question says it is trying to find an alternative site for the chaff.

During a visit to the area on Friday, Stabroek News saw piles of burning paddy chaff. Residents said that some of it was dumped on Thursday. They said that if this newspaper had visited the area on Thursday it would have had a first-hand experience of the severity of what they face when there is a ‘land breeze’.

The site at Strathavon where paddy chaff is being dumped by the Cane Grove Rice Mill. Smoke can be seen rising from the burning chaff in this Melissa Charles photo.   Parents related that their children are the ones who suffer the most from this ongoing problem and there is no respite for them when they go to school, since most of the children attend the Cane Grove Primary and Strathavon Nursery Schools which are right in the heart of the community.

An examiner for the National Grade Four Assessment said that the exams on Thursday had to be interrupted for a period since the children could not concentrate when the smoke started to burn their eyes.

One woman said that her 6-year-old son suffers from bronchitis and had to be sent home from school on Thursday when the area was engulfed by thick smoke. Other residents said that they suffer from heavy chest colds and skin rashes as a result of the smoke and air-borne ash particles. ”Sometimes when you breathe you feel like grains passing into your nostrils,” one woman said. She also recounted that on many occasions as soon as she washed and hung out her clothes a hard breeze would blow black ash and she would have to re-do her laundry.

‘Royal-round-around’

Abdul and Indroutie Sawh live a stone’s throw from the dumpsite. The elderly couple related to Stabroek News that they have been living under this pall of smoke and ash for almost five years and have visited every possible authority to no avail. The most recent attempt to solve the problem was a visit the couple made on Wednesday to see Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud.

Indroutie said that she cannot understand why no action is being taken by the authorities to ensure that the serious health hazard they are faced with is removed, even after the numerous calls for action made by the community. She described what they have been through as a “royal-round-around” and is pleading for something to be done. A shop keeper with a one-year-old baby said that her diapers and baby clothes are soiled every time the breeze blows in their direction.

A snackette owner told this newspaper that the community does not wish any ill for the mill but only seeks a reprieve from the smoke. “We just want they dump somewhere else,” the woman lamented.

Abdul Sawh told this newspaper that letters had been sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Cane Grove NDC, the Regional Executive Officer of Region 4, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Local Government. He provided Stabroek News with the copy of a letter from the EPA dated June 28, 2007 and addressed to Feeyadul Hakh, General Manager of the Cane Grove Rice Mill Incorporated. The letter advised the said mill that they were to desist from dumping and burning paddy chaff at the Strathavon site “with immediate effect.” The letter recommended that the Cane Grove NDC assist the mill with locating a suitable disposal site for the generated waste. The site should be away from any residential area and no burning should take place. A letter from the EPA to the Chairman of the Cane Grove NDC indicating the same was also shown to Stabroek News.

Finding another site

Stabroek News visited A. Cayume Hakh and Sons Rice Mill at Cane Grove, which is responsible for the dumping of the paddy chaff. Management there said that when they started the rice mill in 2002, they had approached the Cane Grove NDC to propose a piece of land for them to purchase for dumping of the paddy chaff. The land at Strathavon was proposed to them. After complaints from the residents the mill started to use a plot of land away from the housing area to dump the waste. Stabroek News was told that the mill only uses the Strathavon dump site when it rains and the dam leading to the other site cannot be traversed by trucks. This was the case on Thursday when it rained and the mill needed to get rid of excess paddy chaff.

One of the managers related that the overseer of the NDC called them on Thursday to ask that they spread out the paddy chaff thinly so that it could burnout faster, an order they complied with. The manager said though that no one from the mill had lit any fires but had only dumped the chaff there because they had no other choice. She said that some residents who use the husk as fertilizer for their farms prefer when it is burnt and it is quite possible that they may have lit the dump.

She said that the mill only has two more ‘milling days’ remaining and will dump the husk on their other dump site. She also said that they are trying to locate another site by the next crop in October. This is however proving difficult since with the new ‘Grow more’ initiative by the Ministry of Agriculture persons are utilizing their once unused land.