Rambachan: No ‘super dump’ in Forres Park

During a meeting of the Parliament’s Public Accounts Enterprises Committee (PAEC) on Wednesday, Solid Waste Management Company Limited (SWMCOL) CEO Ronald Roach said the Beetham and Guanapo landfills must be remedied and converted to transit sites for sorting and recycling trash. All remaining waste would then be sent to a new site at Forres Park that would possess an impervious lining and collect leachate (run-off).

However, in an interview last Thursday, Rambachan said because of fumes from the current Forres Park site, residents of the nearby Springvale community had to seek medical attention, and the Springvale Hindu Primary School has been closed.

“The fumes from that dump go very regularly into that village and the smoke clouds the whole village,” Rambachan said, adding, “The school has had to close on several occasions because of the dump.” “So the decision of the Government to move all activities there, I think that is something we are going to resist very strongly. What is required is for Government to think, not just in terms of that kind of landfill, but for incineration processes based along models that we have for instance in South Korea. And they should try to encourage private-public sector partnerships in that regard.” Asked what type of resistance might be planned, he said: “Total resistance. Whatever way we have to fight it, we will fight it.

The Government have to stop dumping Port-of-Spain problems in central Trinidad.” Long-time resident Vernon Polo, 68, told Sunday Newsday that little children would “wet pieces of cloth and wear it over their noses” because of the smell from the landfill.

“The air becomes toxic whenever the wind blows the fumes from the dump into the village and that does happen regularly,” Polo said. “And it have no such thing as wet and dry season, is just smoke everywhere.” He said villagers regularly complain of breathing problems, stomach cramps and a burning sensation in their throats.

“The children in the area does fall sick on a regular basis,” he said. He admitted to being unsure, however, whether the smoke had caused a rise in cancer rates in the village.