Under the original terms of an Inter-American Development Bank loan, approved in 1999, 18 sanitary landfills and four transfer stations were to have been completed on the Family Islands. Since the signing of the loan, six of those 18 facilities have been completed.
Henry Moxey, project director for the Solid Waste Management Programme, the government entity making use of the money, explained to the Journal that the delay is due mostly to problems procuring land.
Addressing the delay directly, Mr. Moxey said, “Both the IDB and the government realized that (with the timeframe) there needed to be adjustments. We’re quite on track and on time as far as the banks are concerned, relative to the completion of these (landfills and transfer stations).”
Land has now been procured and designs completed for the remaining facilities, and Mr. Moxey told the Journal that those projects have been put up for tender.
The tendering process takes a month, he explained. After the tenders have gone before the tenders board and been given a “non-objection,” Cabinet papers are prepared and the tenders are sent to the Cabinet for consideration. Once Cabinet makes a decision, a contract is issued.
Then the construction phase begins. According to Mr. Moxey, each facility takes between three and four months to construct.
Mr. Moxey explained that some Family Islands need sanitary landfills badly.
“There has been a tremendous need,” Mr. Moxey said.
“The simple fact of the matter is, they have been disposing of waste in a very unsanitary and un-environmentally friendly way and it has impacted, no doubt, groundwater table, surrounding beach area and even land.”
Mr. Moxey said that with the installation of the landfills or transfer stations, the Department of Environmental Health Services will have control of how the waste is disposed of.
Minister of Energy and the Environment, Dr. Marcus Bethel, recently told the Senate that the government expects a positive impact from the completion of these waste management facilities, which he said were “nearing completion.”
The practice, prevalent in the Family Islands, of “dump, burn and push” has been discouraged through a public relations campaign and the involvement of regulatory agencies like DEHS, the police and the Environmental Court.
Burning of waste releases toxic emissions, Mr. Moxey pointed out, and leaves behind a residual that is also “very problematic.”
“Land acquisition has been the biggest issue,” Mr. Moxey said. “Land was critical. It was the critical part of this entire exercise.”
The six operational facilities are on Exuma, North Eleuthera, Harbour Island, Bimini, San Salvador and North Andros.
Some islands, like Long Island, Cat Island, Andros and Grand Bahama, will get two facilities, in most cases a transfer station and a sanitary landfill.
A landfill is a specially treated and prepared excavated area where waste is finally deposited. A transfer station is a temporary holding place for waste until it is taken to a landfill.
“(In) those areas where land is an issue, and where the land does not meet the general requirements for a landfill to be constructed, transfer stations are put in place,” Mr. Moxey explained.
By: Quincy Parker, The Bahama Journal
