Garbage collection in Bartica is resumed following dumpsite closure – Mayor

Bartica Mayor Anthony Murray has revealed that following the closure of the Byderabo dumpsite, located on the outskirts of Bartica in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), interventions made by the council have led to the resumption of garbage collection within the township.
A court order issued earlier in the year had halted further use of the privately owned Byderabo dumpsite, and an alternative dumpsite had been identified at 10 Miles.
In an interview with Guyana Times on Tuesday, Mayor Murray explained that due to the distance between the new dumpsite and the town, and taking into consideration the limited transportation capacity, garbage collection services within the town had significantly been slowed.

“We were given notice to move to a new location, because we received a court order. So, we moved from the one that we were using over the years. So, because of the distance and the amount of garbage that was being disposed by partition, we now had to think about the distance and the time it would take for us to turn around and to pick up garbage at the different streets (and) different locations.”
In this regard, the mayor noted, to bring garbage collection within the town back to a state of normalcy, the council had had to request Central Government to procure additional trucks for the municipality.
“We only had three tractors, but the three tractors have a small trailer that would just accommodate a few. And then they have to go and dump and they come back. So, we requested the Government, and they were able to enter (into) a contract with a private company. We were able to have two compact trucks available to us, um, to help out with the garbage,” Mayor Murray detailed.
He added, “A few times, we had mechanical problems that caused some pileups quickly, but then we certainly get around it (problems), and we were able to minimize the excess garbage pileup.”
Moreover, he revealed that to bolster the town’s waste management disposal, another truck was handed over to the council just last week.
“And I’m happy to also say again (that), to control the garbage collection, we did, in 2023 subvention, request to purchase a brand-new compactor truck, (and) we got through with that. We had the handing-over ceremony last week Friday, and now we have a brand-new truck added to the fleet of vehicles that we have. So, there you have it, that you (Bartica) certainly wouldn’t have the problem of picking up the domestic refuse or garbage collection,” he detailed.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had, in 2020, been contemplating closure of two landfill sites: at Esplanade Road in New Amsterdam and at Byderabo in Bartica. This contemplation had been occasioned by the EPA stipulating new criteria for landfills and dumpsites, and a list of all landfill sites had been compiled. This list was used to determine which would be closed or upgraded to EPA standards. It was discovered that both of the landfills contemplated for closure had been situated close to residential areas.
With the decision to close the landfills being contemplated, Puran Brothers Disposal Inc had, in December of 2022, been awarded a contract worth $195,855,000 for closure of the Byderabo dumpsite and development of a sanitary landfill at Bartica.