Stakeholders take closer look at waste management

Waste on the streets of Roseau
Waste on the streets of Roseau

A one-day workshop geared at formulating guidelines for the proper collection, transportation, storage and disposal of waste generated by the country has been described as important in helping Dominica to more effectively manage waste.

“This is an important event in our national development thrust, developments which is driven by a green and clean strategy and is mandated by the requirements of a sustainable development agenda. Small island developing states are faced with countless constraints including the management of their waste,” Senior Environmental Health Officer, Sylvester St Ville, said during the launch of the workshop on Tuesday at the Flaboyant Hotel.

He added that limited land space, high dependency on imports and urbanization, challenge those responsible for waste management to find the appropriate technology to meet the growing demands of waste.

Chief Environmental Health Officer, Anthony Scotland said he has noticed that over the years Dominica has been moving from being an organic island to one that uses tin and plastic.

He added that it is time that the country ‘rethinks and retools’ to get back to being an organic country.

Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) country representative, Shirley Augustine, said sustainable development and the environment in Dominica is one area of interest for PAHO.

“PAHO allocates a substantial amount of resources that are spent on basic sanitation and improving the environment. The Ministry of Health identified the need for solid waste guidelines during our last meeting for development,” she said.

She stressed that guidelines are needed since the nature of waste management in Dominica demands that a set of standards should effectively be in place.

“Poor solid waste management poses a real risk to health and the environment. Waste is also a resource and that resource needs to be managed effectively to gain maximum benefit. There is a need to provide clear guiding principles for the National Solid Waste Management system,” Augustine stated.

She said that Dominica might be one of the first islands to put together a set of guidelines for proper waste management.

“We need to ensure that collection, storage and disposal of solid waste do not cause any harmful impacts,” she cautioned. “There is need to prevent pollution and ecological degradation while securing ecological security and social and economic development. We pride ourselves on being a clean and green country, we call ourselves the Nature Island of the Caribbean and if we are to sustain that, then we need to manage our solid waste very effectively.”

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13 Comments

  1. me
    November 27, 2013

    The reason why uwp is failing miserably is because their rhetoric is too plain and foolish-look for every little thing to criticize, no objectivity, no credibility. At least make an attempt to be fair in you all criticism.

  2. stupes
    November 27, 2013

    Excuses, excuses. Roseau just too darn small to be so nasty and dirty. Where are the bins? Govt bobol them, where the workers? Council not paying them, But we begging Carnival Cruise to return and just not getting the point. It’s appalling how the city has been abandoned and no sort of development strategy has been implemented.

  3. 4CAR
    November 27, 2013

    I suspect that the local small business people are placing their waste all over the place; and telling skerritt to “PICK IT UP.”

  4. Anonymous
    November 27, 2013

    I now understand the mess that I have been experiencing. Proper planning dictates that this exercise should have taken place BEFORE the new system was launched. Now several years later and a grossly mismanaged collection, transportation and disposal system we suddenly see the need for planning.

  5. NicE n NaughtY
    November 27, 2013

    Every day it’s like this, it smells and it seems to have gotten worst with the opening of the tourist season, on the corner not too far from the bay-front they know whose doing it, if it was locals they would have been charged already, they sent the man to clean up the mess one day but by the next morning it was the same thing please enforce the law or take off the books.

  6. CONCERN
    November 26, 2013

    solid waste is dirty the country instead of cleaning it.

    you putting the garbage when you are suppose to, they will pass and do not pick it up. they leave it and go else where.

    they would not use there shovel to clean the area where they picked up the garbage from.

    transporting the garbage to the dump, they litter the whole road and do not clean it.

  7. Bra
    November 26, 2013

    Mem see nou mal, Nou par knee pour sal.
    Even though we are poor, we do not have to be dirty.

  8. praise
    November 26, 2013

    8) Finally someone is actually saying something about proper waste management in Dominica..it’s about time people realize if this country is practising sustainability and promoting Eco tourism, more attention should be put towards the physical environment. We have to start by implementing strategies to Reduce,Reuse,and Recycle our waste. Beginning in the homes.

  9. Thor
    November 26, 2013

    What next skerrit? What next?

  10. yah
    November 26, 2013

    Roseau wasn’t dirty like that before the bin bobol.

  11. zulu
    November 26, 2013

    Stakeholders!!!. That should be the entire country. Once we on earth we generate solid waste. It needs practical legislation and enforcement. Not just legislation drafted by some minister but experts and others directly involve.

    For example gov can put ban on use if non biodegradable waste.
    provide seperate containers for recyle waste and bio waste. Set up a small system for biowaste collection in every community use it to create methane gas which can be sold by village councils. Revenue raise will be used to maintain the system.
    China is huge on recycling waste and is in need of containers. With the current partnership we have with china all our recylable material can be sent there at relatively low cost.

    I Will say again our country is small and as a result environmentall fragile

  12. Circus Bear
    November 26, 2013

    Don’t you just love our local Christmas decorations

    • forreal
      November 26, 2013

      haha your comment is of the wall,you just killed me,change of subject :lol:

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