The condition of the Corito Landfill, the site where the island dumps all its refuse, has been a talking point for several years by various administrations. Currently, the dump site is filled beyond capacity, and it poses a health risk for residents in the vicinity. The Anguilla United Front (AUF) government, with only six months in office, has pledged to do something about it, though.
During the Government Press Conference on Monday 25th August, the Hon. Minister of Natural Resources, Mr. Kyle Hodge, raised the situation at the landfill as a health hazard and spoke on plans to be undertaken urgently to treat the dump site.
He made reference, in particular, to an important meeting on waste treatment which he attended in St. Barths in May with environmental officials from St. Martin / St. Maarten, Guadeloupe, Saba and St. Barths. At this meeting, the Minister said he had signed a commitment letter to strengthen regional cooperation for waste management.
However, the Minister said, before any work can be done on the Corito site to relieve the hazard, the dire situation there has to be properly studied.
To this end, Minister Hodge reported that “two experts on the environment and waste management will be travelling to Anguilla this week to evaluate the situation at Corito. They will spend three days working with the various stakeholders as it relates to coming up with an action plan that we can implement immediately,” he said.
The Minister promised that these experts are not just coming to do a survey and make a report that will then sit on a shelf and catch dust, but that they are coming because Government is ready to take action, and they will provide a guide on how the situation can be dealt with immediately.
As far back as December 2019, during a meeting of Executive Council, the Corito Landfill came up for discussion. The Exco minutes related to these discussions was entitled “Investment in Waste Management to Rehabilitate the Waste Management Operations at the Corito Landfill.
In those minutes, the Executive Council commended the Environmental Health Department for continuing to manage the operations at the Corito Landfill site despite major challenges.
Minister Hodge expresses his thanks, too, for the work that the workers at the Landfill had been doing throughout the years, and promises that there will be a permanent solution to the problems and a relief to the challenges shortly.
A group of personnel from the Environmental Health Department toured the site last Thursday for evaluation.
