Medical personnel from City Hall and the Ministry of Health have advised residents in the areas affected by toxic smoke from the Princes Street dumpsite to evacuate their premises.
The city’s medical officers, with assistance from the Ministry of Health, visited the affected areas on Friday.
The officers while offering medical attention to those afflicted also advised that persons should evacuate the area given the serious health risks associated with inhaling the toxic smoke.
Some persons were referred to the Georgetown Public Hospital, while others were referred to the council’s clinic.
Residents said they have been told to evacuate a while ago, but the problem is where to go.
Meanwhile municipality workers have been working to put out the smoke at the dump.
Mayor Hamilton Green said that the council has met with some resistance from some of its workers who have been refusing to enter the dump because of the risks involved.
In addition to the health risks, they are also afraid that heavy-duty machinery being used could cause some parts of the dump to cave in. This is not unheard of, Green told Stabroek News on Friday, referring to occurrences of this nature in other countries.
In the meantime, a statement from City Hall said the council was “working feverishly to bring some measure of relief” to residents, from the ongoing emissions from the dump.
It added that the Guyana Fire Service and the Guyana Water Inc are both assisting to fight the fires.
On Tuesday last, two NGOs, the Guyana Human Rights Association and the Guyana Citizens’ Initiative had said that the situation at the dumpsite had the makings of a major catastrophe and called for immediate action to bring it under control.
Green had said at a subsequent press conference that as methane gas builds up below tonnes of garbage at the 15-year-old landfill, an explosion was not out of the question.
Efforts had been made to capture methane gas but the project has been stalled, for lack of investors,” Solid Waste Director Hubert Urling told had Stabroek News.
The Solid Waste Department has laid gas vents in some 18 acres of the older part of the dump that is closer to Mandela Avenue. However, mechanisms to actually collect the gas and channel it into cooking gas or electricity is lacking. Urling said investors were needed for this aspect of the project.
The area where the vents have been laid is no longer being used for dumping and has been capped – clay has been placed on top to promote vegetation and prevent water from seeping into the matter below.
Since December 2001, Stabroek News had reported on a stalled project between Guyana and the IDB for a new site. Government engineer Walter Willis had said then that the reason for the lengthy delay was “shortcomings in the design of the site plan.”
Willis said last week that invitations for bids for the project are to be out by next month.
It is hoped that by mid-January next year a CO (Contractor/Operator) will be on the project. Willis said preliminary work was to be done so that the area will meet “universal standards” before an international contractor takes on the project. The access road to the site, which begins from the Industrial area on the Eccles public road leading in some two and a half miles has to be constructed, and drainage of the site is also to be done.
Addressing the concerns of Eccles residents over a landfill in their area, Lall said the Haag Bosch facility will be nothing like the one at Princes Street. “The design meets international standards,” he told reporters. Willis said that there will be drainage control and standard systems will be put in place to “mitigate the risk of combustion.”
