Dear Editor,
Over the last few days, eight of our collection trucks have been out of service for repairs. The repairs to these vehicles have been delayed because of the unavailability of spares and the apparent difficulty of diagnosing the problems affecting them. Our technical team has been working assiduously to correct the situation, but it is a daunting challenge. Had it not been for that, it must be admitted, we would have been able to do a better job at collecting garbage from our local communities. However, existing circumstances continue to restrain the effectiveness and efficiency of our collection system.
In the face of this mounting embarrassing problem, we continue to hold the view that the opening hours at the Haag Bosch landfill site are too restrictive. They are impacting on the turnaround time of the trucks and the general rhythm of garbage collection in all sections of the city. We are aware that the contractor operating the site – BK International – has certain contractual obligations and that an extension of the opening hours would require additional sums. The question is who will pay for an extension of the operational time at the site?
What is clear is that the council does not have the money to pay for that extension. In fact, a comparative analysis of collection of revenue for the last three years will show that last year council’s performance in the area of revenue collection was noticeably poor. Add to that the fact that we have not had a valuation of properties in the city for more than two decades and there have been substantial increases in the cost of certain essential commodities used by the council to provide services to citizens. In addition there is the changing demographics of the city, the lack of new revenue sources, and the increasing environmental, public health and other needs of the capital. The city’s treasury is very shallow.
The lack of financial and other resources along with other factors including an embrassing culture of indiscipline by some citizens, the inability of council to enforce compliance with the law, and the lack of an aggressive environmental education programme have combined to encourage illegal dumping in almost every community.
As a result, the council must consider other options to manage its solid waste. Let us examine two of them:
The first approach is to increase the number of collection vehicles and crews in communities. This could compensate for the restrictive hours and distance the trucks must travel to tip. Additional trucks will double up on collection. The advantage is that garbage will be cleared faster from local communities; citizens will not have to wait an additional two days to have their regular garbage removed from their premises. They will not have to see the disgusting sight of vagrants rummaging through their bins or endure the nuisance of flies.
The disadvantage is that more trucks require more money, which the council does not have at this point in time. Additional collection vehicles will increase direct cost by 80%- 90% on what is currently paid to our contractors.
The second and more viable approach is to set up a transfer station to manage municipal solid waste. Waste transfer stations are facilities where garbage is unloaded from collection vehicles and briefly held while it is reloaded onto larger long-distance transport vehicles for shipment to landfills or other treatment or disposal facilities.
The advantages are that by combining the loads of several individual waste collection trucks into a single shipment, local communities can save money on the labour and operating costs of transporting the waste to a distant disposal site. Also, they can reduce the total number of vehicular trips travelling to and from the disposal site. Again, citizens would be encouraged to take the garbage to the facility. The station can then function as a regulatory valve to work with the time and rhythm of the landfill site at Haag Bosch.
The disadvantage is that such a facility requires a substantial injection of funds, which is not within the coffers of the council. Yet there is an urgent need for a properly managed and efficient transfer station, to help with the management of municipal solid waste in Georgetown.
However, a few months ago, Cevons Waste Management Company approached the council for permission to set up such a transfer station, on the portion of land off Nelson Mandela Avenue, next to the Gymnasium. In addition, the company plans to put in place certain features to capture the methane gas from the old landfill site and convert it to energy to benefit neighbouring communities, and to set up a recycling plant for plastic and cardboard. The benefits of that proposal are clear:
1. It will facilitate small businesses with their canters and small trucks in disposing of their garbage without the headache of going the distance, time and money. At the moment, certain types of vehicles and horse-drawn carts are not permitted to dispose of garbage at the Haag Bosch site.
2. It will allow those horse-drawn carts that collect garbage from different areas and dump it anywhere in the city, to dispose of it in an appropriate manner that will not hurt the environment and the health of communities.
3. It will be accessible to the public; residents can assist our effort to keep the city clean by taking their garbage to the transfer station rather than getting involved in illegal dumping.
It is clear that that area is most appropriate because it is close to a heavy duty main roadway, which is needed to haul heavy garbage from the city to Haag Bosch.
Having regard to those and other benefits facilitated by the project, the Mayor and City Council, at its statutory meeting, granted approval to Ceveon Waste Management to utilize that portion of land.
Finally, we believe that this environment challenge requires an aggressive national effort. All stakeholders must be involved in very practical ways to put an end to this situation that continues to spiral out of control. We need to work together to make Georgetown safe for us and the next generation. We need to act now!
Yours faithfully
Royston King
Public Relations Officer
Mayor and City Council
