Saturday, April 18 2009

click on pic to zoom in

What rubbish!: Sea Lots resident Catherine Le Blanc appeals to SWMCOL workers delivering garbage to be reprocessed at a transfer station in the commun...

« prev photo next photo »

Residents of Production Avenue, Sea Lots, are disappointed the Solid Waste Management Company Limited (SWMCOL) has decided to re-route garbage disposal into their area, as part of the company’s plan to suspend operations at the Beetham landfill for the Fifth Summit of the Americas.

Catherine Le Blanc, committee leader of the Sea Lots Village Council, on Thursday, said residents were not informed by SWMCOL that garbage will be brought to a transfer station in their community to be reprocessed before it is taken to the Forres Park landfill. They complained of the horrible smell from the garbage.

The transfer station is outfitted with ramps for the garbage trucks to dump their load to be compacted before it is transferred. Le Blanc said she made a report about the stench to the transfer station.

She said while SWMCOL was “using the community to recycle garbage”, it had yet to collect garbage from the area for more than a month which has attracted flies, mosquitoes and rats which put the health of residents at risk.

“We have garbage in here and why we can’t go and see about it. I want them to move this garbage system out of here,” said La Blanc.

Several residents told Newsday when they saw banners and fences going up near the station they were told that it was for the summit, and another time they were told the station was being cleaned up to accommodate soldiers. “Nobody has come to tell us that it is recycling but all kind of excuse they made up, until the work actually started on Wednesday,” Le Blanc said.

Another resident, Allison Augustine, said the transfer station has also been contributing to the circulation of clouds of dust. “It is very unsanitary, especially with the rats and flies coming into our houses. We have to prepare food in our homes I don’t want anybody to get sick,” she said.

A government official told Newsday the station was only a temporary holding bay and there were plans to consider an alternative location after talks with SWMCOL and the Ministry of Local Government.