Late evening Saturday 23rd February 2019, a massive fire broke out the Fond Cole Land Fill. Smoke billowed for miles and the stifling and noxious fumes had nearby residents leaving the homes to escape the possible toxic fumes. This situation was very unfortunate. In light of the fact in October 2017 a team of experts commissioned through the UN after Maria to evaluate the Waste management situation in Dominica presented their Draft findings to the Ministry of Finance. In that report the experts gave a scathing report of how the Fond Cole Landfill was being managed. They noted that the dump was almost filled to capacity five years ahead of its capacity time. . Mainly, because the waste was not being properly separated and that there was an abundant of PET (Polyethenene Terephthalate) usually found in soft drink and water bottles. Those waste had clogged the site. In addition the very important practice of alternating waste layers and soil layers was not being followed at the dumpsite. This is done to slow down breakdown of the trash, and helps control gas emissions from escaping and going into the atmosphere When this is not done then more landfill gases are produce more quickly. They recommended that a new site be found as quickly as possible
So it was incredulous to hear the Mr. Jeno Jacob, the landfill manager state that this fire was of unknown origin. The manager seemed unaware that in improper managed landfills the chance of spontaneous fires are very common. Landfill gas is produced when bacteria breaks down organic product such as foo, paper products etc.b) other times they are produced of volatile Mr. Jacobs ought to have known that methane gas is one of the most common gases produced in landfills. The same gas that is found in propane gas. Landfills are largest source of man-made methane emissions. According to the UN experts, Solid Waste Department should have been sourcing at least 3 alternative sites and chose the best. They recommended that project contain state of the art equipment in order to leachate collection and treatment.
Always putting blame on he public. Mr. Jeno Jacob stated that security measures were being put in pace and waste was going to be separated. Yes that may partly be the reason for the fire. But have they been doing what the experts advised putting a yer of dirt over the garbage to contain the gasses. That was not been done. He failed to mentioned the possibility All this is all well and good. But what he needs to tell the public is the why the Fond Cole site is still opened when the experts recommended that it be closed.
All in all the Fond Cole site should have been closed by now. In addition to the poor management of the site the experts did not like the fact that the Landfill was situated so close to water. Due to the fact that the leachage which is the water that goes through the landfill had a high chance of contaminating ground and surface water. In his statement to the Press Mr. Jacob did not mention anything about a new Landfill site. Is it going to take a total devastation of the area with some and fumes? The manager must be more transparent. The Find Cole site is over full capacity and should be shutdown before a worst disaster happens
The disturbing thing about Dominica is the lack of transparency that is practiced in all reas of the Government. What happened to that report? Have they implemented any of the experts recommendations. Have they tragetted any site.In this day and age landfills are being repurposed and some are being turned into things of beauty parks and otherise
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