Guana Garbage
By Alice - The Abaconian 1 May 2002

A town meeting was held on Guana Cay on April 18th to discuss the issue of the new garbage landfill area that the Government will be putting in on the north end of the island.

Mr. Robert Sweeting, Member of Parliament for South Abaco. opened the subject by stating that the garbage situation is a pressing problem, not only on Guana Cay but also in Marsh Harbour, Hope Town, Man-O-War Cay and Green Turtle Cay.

The site for the new landfill is located in an area of north Guana Cay that does not have an access road. In order to get to the site, a road will have to be put through the property of Mr. Figi. "We met with Mr. Figi and gave him the courtesy of a private notification that the government would like to do this," said Mr. Sweeting, "and we thought that at that time he had given his consent to have the road pushed through his property."

Mr. Sweeting then went on to say that he was shocked to read a letter in the following issue of The Abaconian from Mr. Figi, stating his opposition to having a road put through his land. Guana Cay has had trouble dealing with its garbage since the old dump on the Orchid Bay land was closed. A parcel of land on the north end of the cay has reverted to the Bahamian Government since the owners defaulted on payments, and it is here that the Government plans to build what is emphatically termed a "landfill site" and NOT a dump.

"It is important to understand that this is not going to be an unmanaged, ugly site," said Mr. Everette Hart, Island Administrator. "There will not be cats and rats and flies and a big hill of trash. This is going to be a managed site, and the garbage will not just be lying around in the open, rotting." Objections were raised to situating the landfill on Guana Cay, and some residents thought that it would be a better idea to send the garbage over to Marsh Harbour.

Mr. Hart replied, "The Government brought over a Canadian consulting firm four or five years ago and they studied EVERYTHING that could be done with the garbage, including barging it to the mainland. It was their opinion that a landfill project should be created on Guana Cay. The government has already borrowed money and that money is in the bank for this project. Orchid Bay has kept Guana Cay"s garbage for years. I thank God that the government found property to put the landfill on. If they hadn"t, then it would have been a BIG problem."

Mr. Hart pointed out that in order to access the dump properly that the government would be obliged to improve the road running north out of the Guana Cay settlement. This road right now is unpaved, heavily rutted and extremely dusty in dry weather. A general round of applause greeted this statement, indicating that a majority of the meeting attendees were in favor of improving this road.

"We need to start moving on this NOW," continued Mr. Hart. "If we don"t get the project going, it could be another twenty years before this gets done."

An objection was raised that the elected officials present had not provided a map for the public to see the actual location of the site in question. Mr. Hart assured the assembled people that a map would be posted the following Monday. Suzanne Bethel said that Guana Cay people are fortunate to have such a site for a landfill, since there is no such site on Elbow Cay and the garbage there has become a seemingly insurmountable problem. The prospect of barging the trash over to Marsh Harbour was brought up again. It was explained that this method would be prohibitively expensive, and some members of the assembled populace agreed.

It was pointed out that Marsh Harbour accepts garbage from Man-O-War Cay, Mrs. Bethel replied, "The only reason Marsh Harbour accepts Man-O-War garbage is that Mr. Albury assures them that it is quality" garbage!"

Tony Albury has been managing the dump at Man-O-War for seven or eight years now, and it is his opinion that "even Bill Gates couldn"t afford to run a service to barge garbage to Marsh Harbour."

Mr. Albury separates out the garbage that comes to the Man-O-War dump. Golf carts and appliances are kept in a special area where they can be stripped by anyone needing parts; trees and bushes are chipped and sold as mulch; and other garbage is burned. "We send five bins a week, that"s forty cubic yards, to Marsh Harbour," continued Mr. Albury, "and the rest we burn." At the end of the meeting the general consensus seemed to be that the landfill on Guana Cay is a necessary evil.

Mr. Hart stated that the government had already begun to file land acquisition against Mr. Figi. The road would go through his property one way or another although it would be vastly preferable if Mr. Figi would allow the road to go through without such measures having to be taken. "It is true that we don"t always do everything right," said Mr. Hart, "but for a small country we try to do the best we can."

He pointed out that there is no storage area for garbage within the Guana Cay community, and that garbage would have to be put at the site in any case even if it was going to be shipped. He said that he, personally, is convinced that this landfill will not make a mess and exhorted the Guana Cay residents to trust that the landfill project was the right thing to do.