The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

DEMOCRATIC National Alliance (DNA) Leader Branville McCartney said the Bahamas will “lose out on potential investors and tourists” if officials do not get a handle on the frequent fires the New Providence Landfill.

Mr McCartney said yesterday he does not understand why the government refuses to do anything or what Renew Bahamas is doing to stop the fires and the fumes.

His comments came after smoke billowed from the landfill on Wednesday night and yesterday morning, an experience residents in the area said they have “sadly become used to” dealing with.

Andrew Knowles, Renew Bahamas’ head of communications, said a fire started around 5am on Wednesday and is now nearly 90 per cent extinguished.

“We have made a lot of good progress, the smoke has been reduced drastically and the fire is 90 per cent out,” Mr Knowles said.

“We just have small pockets that remain that are producing some smoke but we have a team that will work through the night to ensure the fire is completely out as soon as possible.”

Mr Knowles also dispelled “unfounded” rumours that medical waste and hazardous materials were on fire.

“The fire, which occurred Wednesday, was in a completely separate area from where the medical and hazardous waste are disposed,” Mr Knowles said in a statement.

“Please note that all medical waste is deep buried on site only after it has been treated elsewhere on island.”

Residents took to social media on Thursday to voice their concerns and express disgust over the constant fires and thick smoke at the landfill.

One Jubilee Gardens resident said: “Yesterday (Wednesday) you could literally smell the carcinogens! And so many people I know are having respiratory issues. I have to keep my windows closed all the time. This is not the way I want to live.”

Another person wrote on Facebook: “You guessed it, the dump is on fire again. Well I guess it was selfish of me to assume I could breathe non-toxic air forever.”

At a press conference yesterday, Mr McCartney questioned what it would take to have a government that is “smart enough and proactive enough to approach this problem head on, find a solution and solve it once and for all.”

“The dump this morning had the international airport covered with smoke. The first thing the tourists saw when they came here this morning was smoke; the first thing they smell when they came here this morning was smoke. Welcome to the Bahamas,” Mr McCartney, who lives in an area affected by the dump’s smoke, said.

“But more importantly there are Bahamians in this country suffering. This is just an island 21 by seven and I dare say all of us live constantly with this danger, and this government is not doing anything about it, or Renew Bahamas who apparently have responsibility for it is quiet and not doing anything about it. This cannot happen in any other country.

“Any investor who believes that they are going to come to this country to either purchase Baha Mar or manage Baha Mar when that dump is still burning, they have something else coming for them. It doesn’t make sense for them to invest in that property when that dump is continuously burning.”

In early 2015, Environment Minister Kenred Dorsett expressed disgust at what he called an “ongoing problem at the landfill and an inability to identify the persons who access it to light the fires.”

Mr Dorsett said the fires would not deter the government “in any way, shape or form with respect to the reforms that we see necessary for landfills not only in New Providence, but all of the Family Islands.”

City dump fires have been a recurrent problem for years.

Renew Bahamas was engaged by the government in 2014 to manage the landfill and help address the matter.

Renew Bahamas has said that it believes the fires represent concentrated arson attacks on the site and its facilities.