The Solid Waste Management Company Ltd (SWMCOL) has hired a consultant to test samples of the smoke that has been filtering into the city from the Beetham landfill since last week Friday.The company responded to several questions yesterday with this statement:"Through the recommendation from the ODPM, and led by SWMCOL, preparation for air-quality testing has been initiated. Technical collaboration has been sought from the EMA and Cariri."In an interview yesterday, CEO of the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) Dr Joth Singh said his organisation was working with SWMCOL to treat with the issue of smoke coming into the city from the landfill.
Singh confirmed that despite efforts by the T&T Fire Services, the fire was still burning at the site."The important thing is to get the fire out but with changes in wind direction, smoke has continued to enter the city," Singh said.He said the EMA had told SWMCOL there was a need to monitor and test the smoke for toxins."I know they have contracted a consultancy firm to come on site and get samples. This morning (yesterday) EMA officials were working with SWMCOL to identify locations for sampling," he added.Singh said the process could take days.
Commenting on calls from environmentalists and others to find an alternative to landfills, Singh agreed that the Beetham landfill needed to be closed."Our landfills have problems. Beetham specifically is not a landfill. It is a dump. There are security issues, with people going in there and roaming the dump sites and it is very problematic."Singh said landfills were not problematic in nature but said this country's landfills were not properly run and it was past time to relocate them."The problem is that no one wants a landfill in their area and we can't just close the ones we have without having a place to dump garbage."
He said incinerators were not necessarily the answer to waste-disposal problems as they could contribute greatly to air pollution and were expensive with high maintenance costs.Port-of-Spain mayor Louis Lee Sing yesterday disagreed that an incinerator would cause pollution. He added: "Every incinerator is not the same and in my proposal to the Local Government Minister I specified an incinerator I had observed in Korea and it was environment-friendly."He said he had made the information on the exact model available to Local Government Minister Suruj Rambachan.
Rambachan, in a telephone interview yesterday, said the landfill was a worrisome situation, not only in Beetham but also in Forres Park.He said he had met with SWMCOL yesterday and told the company to monitor and alleviate the problem of smoke drifting toward the capital.He said long-term solutions, involving reducing the size of the dump, were being discussed. In response to questions, Environment Minister Ganga Singh said in a text message he was advised there were plans to deal with the situation but it was not in his portfolio.