NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Vaughn Miller will tour public dumpsites on each Family Island beginning before the end of the year as many of those facilities reach capacity, presenting challenges for residents in those communities.
When contacted, Press Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister Clint Watson said: “The minister is expected to travel to the various sites on Family Islands to decide on the action steps that the government must take to both improve the situation and hold the persons managing these dumpsites accountable to their responsibilities.
“Once he has been able to do that, he will then report back to Cabinet and the government for a course of action to be determined.
“We don’t know where he will start first.
“We do know that at the heart of the matter is Eleuthera, which is dear to minister Miller because that is where he comes from.
“He did make reference to us [his] concerns there is parts of Eleuthera, so I presume Eleuthera is going to be one of the first areas that are targeted.”
When Eyewitness News spoke to residents in Palmetto Point and Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera, last week, many expressed concerns about the growing challenge at the dumpsite in Palmetto Point.
The garbage and debris extended from the entrance of the site several hundred feet back in piles aboveground, creating a minefield of waste.
Bekera Taylor, a business owner and president of the Eleuthera Sustainability Council Cooperative Society, said the dump is a pressing issue that the council is seeking to address in partnership with the government and stakeholders.
“Right now, we came to realize one of our dumpsites that’s really creating havoc — I call it havoc because you don’t only see what it’s doing, you smell and feel the impact.
“The Palmetto Point dumpsite. When you pass there, you can see all the garbage to the front and when it’s windy, the garbage blows out from the dumpsite [to] across the other side of the street.
“So, in passing, it would appear as if people are just loosely throwing garbage down when that’s not the case.
“It’s because people are deliberately dumping the garbage in the front section of the dump as opposed to dumping it beyond the front area.
“This is an issue that needs to be addressed.”
In May, there were concerns expressed about a landfill in North Eleuthera being improperly operated by a waste management company that was owned by the brother of then member of Parliament Howard Rickey Mackey.
Mackey owned the barge and some equipment involved in the government contract.
While he sought to defend the operation, a former operator of the landfill and Harbour Island Commonage Committee Chairman Richard Johnson said instead of trenches being dug and waste dropped within and covered, the operators were simply dumping the waste on the ground.
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