The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas squandered the modern landfill operation provided 18 years ago by an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) project through poor execution and management, a waste services provider writes today.

Ginny McKinney, principal of Wastenot, says in an article published on Page 2B today that the frequent fires at the New Providence landfill, which this weekend forced numerous Bahamian families to evacuate their homes, could have been prevented had this nation followed the “blueprint” it was given.

She writes that the $33.5 million IDB-financed solid waste management project, of which $10 million came from Bahamian taxpayers, saw a Canadian engineering firm design “a modern, fully-engineered landfill” for New Providence.

That company, Stantec, also provided “detailed guidance” on how the Bahamas needed to manage its waste and garbage, providing advice on recycling and the diversion of other waste streams, such as tyres and green waste, away from the New Providence landfill.

Stantec’s work also resulted in the construction of numerous modern facilities at the Tonique Williams Highway site, including “a fully equipped machine shop for maintenance of all the machinery, and also a hazardous waste building with associated lab space, and a building that was to have housed fire fighting equipment”.

“When Stantec finally left, we were in possession of a fully prepared and equipped sanitary landfill, with a comprehensive blueprint on how to use it,” Ms McKinney said in a paper that was submitted to the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) last year.

“A dedicated landfill compacting machine was also purchased, [and there was] the preparation of all the land to allow eventually for six lined landfill cells (of which only one was completed). A full leachate control system was installed, including piping for Cell One, and a pumping station and a leachate pond for holding the excess leachate.”

Ms McKinney implied that inadequate implementation and oversight, together with a lack of focused attention and resources from successive governments, both FNM and PLP, had squandered the Stantec benefits and brought the landfill and surrounding Bahamian communities to their current woes.

“So what is left of the infrastructure and detailed blueprint that Stantec left?” she asked. “Cell One, the only lined cell, is now full to capacity and, in fact, looms well over its suggested top out height. Fortunately, the ‘gabon’ system of venting was followed right up until its closure, and this is the only Cell not to have caught on fire.”

“The leachate system for Cell One is crushed and useless; leachate gathers around the bottom of Cell One.... No other Cells were ever lined, as in the face of recurring fires, emergency management meant garbage was placed in unlined Cells never to be removed, and the Cells then lined.”

Ms McKinney said the hazardous waste and repair buildings remain but “were never fully utilised”, while many machine shop components had disappeared.

“The dedicated landfill compactor stood idle most of the time as the DEHS (Department of Environmental Health Services) personnel cited problems with garbage packing under the cowling around the tyres,” she added.

“In the 16-plus years since the landfill infrastructure was finished, formal recycling was never implemented by the DEHS; the only recycling being done on the landfill was by the independent pickers who would work the open face of the landfill (where the daily tipping was happening) recycling mainly metals, beer bottles and gently used items that could be re-used.”

Tribune Business has reported the numerous landfill management proposals that were made to the current government and former Ingraham administration. However, none were acted on until the Christie administration concluded its 2014 agreement with Renew Bahamas, a company that was 60 per cent foreign-owned.

Renew Bahamas was chosen as landfill manager despite the Government never putting the contract out to public bid via a formal Request for Proposal (RFP), which would have allowed all interested parties to compete on a ‘level playing field’, knowing the criteria they had to meet.

Renew Bahamas, as exclusively revealed by Tribune Business last October, pulled-out of its landfill management contract in Hurricane Matthew’s wake, citing security and other concerns.

The Government, though, interpreted it as Renew Bahamas using the storm as cover for its exit, given that the company had been seeking to re-negotiate the financial terms of its management contract due to consistent, heavy losses.