An ambitious waste disposal project at Haags Bosch, East Bank Demerara, is behind schedule with government yesterday meeting with players to express worry.There are delays in the Haags Bosch dumpsite with government yesterday meeting with stakeholders to complain.Minister in the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, Norman Whittaker; Permanent Secretary (PS) Collin Croal; Minister in the Ministry of Finance Juan Edghill; and Representative, Inter-Development Bank (IDB) Leslie Ann Edward, were among those present at the meeting at the Kingston Ministry yesterday, a government statement said.The Haags Bosch Project began in February 2007 and is scheduled to be completed by August 13, 2013.Minister Whittaker expressed the need for the stakeholders present to, “offer opinions, recommendations, observation with a view to advancing the work that still needs to be done and bringing conclusion to those work within the timeline.”He was also critical of the seeming lack of urgency of the project which was designed to provide a sustainable solution to solid waste collection and disposal problems in Georgetown.The project has not been without its problem after the government’s supervising engineer, Walter Willis, clashed with the main contractor, BK International. Willis was removed from the project.According to Whittaker, by now, the project should have been wrapping up.Somewhere along the line, some or most of the stakeholders have been failing to deliver on aspects of the project, he said.The government statement did not immediately name any of the parties that were guilty for the delays.Other stakeholders represented at the discussion were solid waste collectors…Cevons Waste, Puran Bros and FH Disposal, BK International,Wholesale Jerseys Online, IBA Consultant, GuyEnterprise, Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Region Four Regional Democratic Council (RDC,) the 15 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs,) the Mayor and City Council and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).Whittaker called for suggestions that would help to meet the target date.“Whilst Government has not been able to deliver on some of the expectations of the project in a timely manner, there has been vast improvement in waste collection in the city. Waste is being collected in a controlled manner, with organised waste recycling, an improvement that was not afforded at the Mandela dumpsite,” the statement said.Minister Edghill identified some areas that must be addressed in relation to the project. He listed compaction among these and said that arriving at ‘real compaction’ is critical to pro-longing the lives of the cells.The Haags Bosch project is financed under a partnership agreement between the Government and the IDB, with the latter committed to providing a total funding of US$18.07M for the completion of the project. The bank commenced disbursing the resources from 2007 and the project was due to be completed within five years.With the project entering its sixth operational year, the IDB Representative said that the bank is pleased that the Guyana Government has seen the need to prioritise the issues and challenges affecting the closure of the project.She said this has been a concern, in light of the fact that just under half of the resources for the project remain undisbursed.The un-used resources have costs; an opportunity cost in terms of social programmes that require resources that the bank is unable to fund and as well as financial cost as the loan resources have interest rate. Over the last year, the IDB has been providing technical support to the government to ensure the successful implementation of the project.IDB has also been providing training and capacity building skills to those persons managing the project. |