Dump deal ‘soon come’, claims minister

| 23/09/2020 | 60 Comments
Cayman News Service
Protect Our Future protests the dump (Photo by POF member Isabela Watler)

(CNS): Government is said to be close to signing a deal with the preferred bidder on the long-awaited waste-management project. It has been almost three years since the Ministry of Health selected DECCO and a consortium of waste experts to take on the project, but to date almost nothing has happened on the tender remit and the George Town dump continues to grow, with reuse and recycling accounting for only a fraction of rubbish management.

On Friday, Health Minister Dwayne Seymour, who is responsible for the Department of Environmental Health, which operates the landfills on all three islands as well as garbage collection, claimed that a deal was going to be signed soon. He said that talks with the Dart-led consortium regarding the project had made real progress.

“From the progress that I have seen… next month we hope to sign the total agreement. So we are very close in our negotiations, so I must say there is a lot of progress being made,” he said in response to questions from CNS about the possibility of taking the project into public hands in order to move it along.

Seymour said that work on remediating the dump was underway but it would be next year before any work would begin on the waste-to-energy component of the project, which the government is relying on to all but eliminate the need for a landfill.

However, government has been describing the project as ‘soon come’ for more than a decade. A combination of factors, from backroom dealing to a lack of profitability in waste-management, has thwarted efforts to address what many see as Cayman’s most fundamental environmental and public health problem, even in the face of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The politics of the dump continues and it is still not clear what the main cause of the problem is. There are said to be difficulties surrounding the rate that CUC is willing to pay for the energy that would be generated by burning rubbish balanced against the return on investment for Dart and the value for money for the public.

Earlier this year Premier Alden McLaughlin held a press briefing at the dump and explained that because talks were stalled the project had been broken down into parts, though he refused to say what the stumbling blocks were.

The first phase was the remediation and capping of the existing landfill work, which Dart has wanted for years. The premier has said this was a much “simpler exercise”, which the government and Dart had agreed on while they hammered out the rest of the contract.

CNS has contacted the chief officer in the health ministry, the project manager and DECCO’s president for comment and we are awaiting a response.


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Category: Environmental Health, Health

Comments (60)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Not holding my breath.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Face up Caymanians. Your elected leadership does not have what it takes to get any of the important things done and fixed. They will never get any of it done given all the time in the world to do it. They just do not have the brains to figure it out nor the talent to push it through. As long as ignorant Caymanians rule it will stay third world. Just like your education.

    • Anonymous says:

      Hope Bodden Towners will finally come to their senses and vote for some one that has education and sense, come next year May, for if they vote for the same full moon donkey riding one then dogs will eat our supper

      • Anonymous says:

        If hope is your only strategy then you are hopeless. And yes you are. The same clowns will be running the same circus until the UK takes over.

    • Anonymous says:

      Look at their legal advisors…yet another bad deal in the works and we can all feel it!

  3. Anonymous says:

    Cancer Island soon come

  4. Anonymous says:

    Nobody in a position of power gives a flying thing about yours or anybody else’s comments. Or comments about anything else that is important to the people of the Cayman Islands

    CAT AND COOK Krylov’s fable (google translated)

    Some cook, quite literate,
    Has run from kitchen to the
    tavern (he was religious
    and on this day he mourned godmother)
    He left a Cat to guard the food from mice at home.

    But what he sees when he returns?
    Pie scraps are on the floor;
    and Vasyka-Cat is in the corner,
    behind vinegar barrel working on a chicken
    Purring and grumbling from pleasure

    “Oh, you glutton! ah, villain! ”
    The Cook reproaches the Cat:
    “Aren’t you ashamed of the walls, let alone people?
    (And Vasyka hides the chicken piece.)

    How! being an honest Cat until now,
    It used to be example of humility, –
    And you … oh, what a shame!
    Now all the neighbors going to say:
    “Cat-Vasyka is a rogue! Cat-Vasyka is a thief!
    And Vasyka, won’t be allowed not only in the cookery, but even in the yard,
    Like a greedy wolf in the sheepfold:
    He is a corruption, he is a plague, he is an ulcer of these places! ”
    (while Vasyka listens he won’t stop eating)

    While Cook continued to moralize the Cat
    Cat-Vasyka ate entire roast.

    But I would order to the cook
    to make a wall engrave:
    Don’t waste your breath with speeches
    Where decisive measures are needed.

    Meaning of the fable:
    About someone who does not pay attention to persuasion and exhortation and continues to do his (usually reprehensible) work.
    When someone ignores criticism, listens to advice but continues doing one’s own thing
    It is useless to persuade in cases where decisive measures are needed, not words.

  5. Anonymous says:

    2021 soon come and donkey brains will be riding off into the sunset. And hopefully then we’ll have someone competent as Minister of the Environment.

  6. Anonymous says:

    The Government should be ashamed of themselves…and we as Caymanians swallow everything they say. When i say ashamed…why is it that Cayman has a mountain of garbage…why is it that we are still towing barges to supply the sister islands..why is it that we are still using umbrellas to get to and fro from the airport???. There is and never will be a strategic plan to address these problems as long as we keep electing these cronies to manage our country.

  7. Anonymous says:

    the year is 2045, and, look! the dump!

  8. Doodlebug says:

    Some people leave their girlfriends and wives behind when looking for further adventure, and go to Cuba! Plenty rum and ladies there. And donkeys.

  9. e says:

    It’s going to be tough to cap that baby while the trucks keep piling the trash higher and higher. Doesn’t there need to be a new place to send the trash first? What am I missing?

    • Anonymous says:

      I am wondering the same thing?? Where is the garbage going?

      • Stench Foot says:

        9.03pm It’s going to be dumped all around the Govt Admin Bldg, for two reasons. To protect all our pen pushers from the affects of global warming, and to concentrate their attention on relocation of the dump.

    • Anonymous says:

      “Baby”? How about The Monster?

  10. Anonymous says:

    Burning toxic fumes in the air which we will all breathe is coming soon.

  11. Anonymous says:

    Burning garbage with toxic fumes will give everyone in the surrounding areas serious long term health issues including cancer etc.

    The children next door are at a huge risk of developing cancers etc down the road.

    Move the dump!

    Disgusting.

    • Anonymous says:

      Move it where? Dart came and found it there and chose to build there…. just sayin

    • Dart is the OG Nimby says:

      Yeh, just move it. That’ll solve the problem then just as long as it’s no longer in your or Dart’s backyard. Then inevitably we’ll have a former dump site and a new one both emitting toxins into the air soil and water. Deal with the dump in-situ once and for all, there’s plenty of room for a sorting plant and incinerator even with the all the new and old trash capped.

  12. Anonymous says:

    New airport connector road to sparky drive, just starting construction now. Will be great when driving rom home on SMB to airport and not have to queue past ALT roundabout and that busy road by Ashley furniture.

  13. Anonymous says:

    I surmise that the issue has been that the power rate requested by the consortium is more that CUC will pay as the requested rate is more expensive that power produced from fossil fuel. We (the people) have to be prepared to allow government to pay additional funds to cover the gap. The cost of building & operating such a plant isn’t cheap. But it must be done for our health & safety.

  14. Anonymous says:

    Election must be right around the corner. Rinse and repeat!

  15. Anonymous says:

    The minister of health can’t even keep his health in check. That says it all.

  16. Anonymous says:

    April Fools!!! Or is it that the election is just around the corner……….lol 😂

  17. Anonymous says:

    and we the people pay for it..plus maintenance and fees?

  18. Anonymous says:

    8 years later…and all we have is a soon come story…thanks ppm.

  19. Anonymous says:

    With all those damned tourists and expats gone – why not torch the dump and let it burn for several months? Cheap, effective, and the night time glow will add a romantic ambiance for all to see.

    • Anonymous says:

      Yum – all those lovely airborne particulates, to be inhaled and eco at anything down wind with toxic residues.

    • Anonymous says:

      You must be a village idiot.

    • Anonymous says:

      10:55
      🤬 think Nazi extermination gas chambers were more “humane” compared to what you are suggesting.

    • Anonymous says:

      Human Rights Watch
      December 1, 2017
      “As If You’re Inhaling Your Death”
      The Health Risks of Burning Waste in Lebanon.
      https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/12/01/if-youre-inhaling-your-death/health-risks-burning-waste-lebanon

      And this is only one issue that affects human bodies.

      Every building in Grand Cayman will have to be condemned and demolished.

      Every sq.inch of Grand Cayman will be contaminate by the toxic fire byproducts- flora, fauna, soil, sand, costal water, marine life etc. for decades, if not centuries.

      I am explaining you this because you seem to be unable to grasp it. There are plenty videos about ghost town in Chernobyl. That is what Grand Cayman will look like if you start burning 40 years old Dump. A ghost island no one would be able to touch for centuries.

  20. Anonymous says:

    Prepare yourselves for the next installment of corrupt backroom dealings and exchanges. By now we should expect it to be insensitive to fundamental public duties; our time, resources, current and future public health, and ecology.

  21. Bertrand STERN says:

    Let us all be clear , the present .gov has close to no intentions to address the matter before elections come to pass. The capping of the dump is a pipe dream at the moment. CIS will continue to expose kids to toxic emanations from the dump despite Decco’s efforts to bring a solution to the outstanding problem , and health issues.

    All of this because some politicians don’t want to deal with the designation of a location for the WTE plant that might displease some of their constituents, but might be bringing in to empoverished locales on the island a better environment and better jobs (running a WTE plant with good controls is no picknick).

  22. Anonymous says:

    Anyone know what’s happening at the dump over past few days, all the trees cleared away opposite Lakeside leaving a lovely view as you drive by.

    CNS: Prep for NRA work.

  23. J|) says:

    Waiting for the full moon to rise and the donkey to be saddled, I see.

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