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Contact:
Claudia Monlouis
Monday, January 26, 2004 - The Saint Lucia Solid Waste Management
Authority is expressing concern about a marked increase in the illegal dumping
of waste, in the area of the old airport runway in Vieux Fort.
The SLWMA Operations Manager Laurianus Lesfloris says the area is being used as
a dumping site, despite its close proximity to the Vieux Fort Landfill.
Surveillance of this area has revealed that both private individuals and
business houses are responsible for the problem.
“We conducted investigations last week Friday and we have found out that this
place is used for illegal dumping, both by private individuals and commercial
entities. We need to send a message out to the public that our disposal sites,
in Vieux Fort and Deglos are open to the public from 7 o’clock in the morning to
6 o’clock in the evening Mondays to Saturdays. On Sundays and public holidays we
are opened from 7 o’clock to 12 o’clock and there is no fee, absolutely no fee
for disposing of waste at those disposal sites.”
The Authority is also calling upon electrical contractors and their employees to
desist from burning electrical wires at the site of the old runway. “As it
relates to the burning of cables, or wires for recovery of metals, this is being
undertaken in the vicinity of the runway, again by individuals who don’t know
better. The Authority has noticed that this practice has been going on for a
long time,” Lesfloris says.
Members of the public who engage in this practice are being asked to consider
the serious consequences of their actions, among them air and ground pollution
and respiratory disorders.
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