Waste management project still months away
George Town Dump, Grand Cayman
(CNS): The Integrated Solid Waste Management System for the Cayman Islands is still many months away from being implemented, as talks roll on between government and the Dart-led consortium that was selected as the preferred bidder, the premier revealed Wednesday. Addressing the Legislative Assembly, which is meeting on Cayman Brac, Alden McLaughlin said that the talks were not expected to conclude until March next year. Despite describing it as a pressing need, he indicated that it would be later in 2019 before work will start on the project to overhaul the current system and tackle the problem of the ever-growing George Town dump.
“Negotiations with the Dart-led consortium to create that infrastructure are continuing as we seek to reach an agreed position on a number of reserve matters, including financial, technical, and legal issues,” McLaughlin said of the long-awaited project, which has been at the top of the government’s agenda of commitments since 2013.
The premier said that once everything was agreed, a draft contract would be drawn up for the Central Tenders Committee to review, which won’t be until March. He said that work being done on the environmental impact assessment was also expected to be completed by March. Only then, if all goes well, the buildings for the project will go before the Central Planning Authority for planning approval.
“There is a lot going on with this very technical project and I am grateful for the hard work going on in the Ministry of Health to ensure that we do not get blown off track and will actually see the work on the new waste management project begin in 2019,” McLaughlin said.
“It has been a long time coming but we are getting there; and when completed we will have a modern fully integrated waste management facility that will end our reliance on the existing landfills. The ability to use waste as a resource for recycling and energy generation instead of a problem to be dumped transforms our approach to waste management and brings considerable health and other environmental benefits,” he added.
Almost one year ago, in October 2017, the government announced that DECCO, the general contractor owned by the Dart Group of companies, had been selected as the preferred bidder, and the health ministry has been in talks about the contract since then.
That original process has also been questioned over the last eleven months, as it appeared that the consortium was made up of previous independent bidders in the process who, somewhere along the line, joined forces with the Dart Group — an allegation the government denied.
Parliamentary questions were submitted to the government by Opposition Leader Ezzard Miller in March but the answers failed to explain what had happened during that process. Miller said he had been trying to establish what process was followed and what the “competitive dialogue” was that government said it had engaged in before the selection of the preferred bidder.
Meanwhile, there was no mention of the current situation regarding the mysterious disappearance of the director of the Department of Environmental Health who, despite assertions by officials that he has not been suspended, has been absent from his job for almost one year while continuing to remain on payroll.
Category: Environmental Health, Health, Politics
Zzzzz. Boring. Much ado about nothing. The current site has a good 50 more years in it.
I wonder if the government is going to try selling the dump , Cayman mountain with ocean view with beach access .
perfect example of ppm governance….
Thank goodness CHEC is coming in. We are finally saved by having Decco and the Chinese on one little island. Praise to Unity team!
Such doubters, once CHEC gets here with there crews and teams up with Decco; all these major projects will get done quickly and at a low cost but be of very high quality. Our Unity government will produce!
and Chinatown would be added to the Grand Cayman map
It’s pretty simple: Decco rolled up all the other bidders into a consortium (everyone gets a little piece and avoids the risk of getting nothing.) This is perfectly legal and may have been a smart move. The government now has only one interested bidder, no choice, and no leverage. The problem is trying to appear in charge, rather than appearing incompetent like they look now. It’s pretty much like west bay road/public beach, the government will do a deal, default on some of its contractual duties, and those parts of the project will be delayed for years. Decco will cap and close the landfill immediately and get paid for it. The waste to energy part will get delayed indefinitely over political wrangling about operating it, permits, land, consulting fees, pollution etc. and Dart won’t care because Mt Trashmore is covered and its problem has been solved at government expense. Meanwhile the Bodd n Town dump will get lined and put in temporary service because the garbage has to go somewhere but it ends up being permanent. With the pressure off, waste to energy plant is not built for 10-20 years. On the plus side, the East West extension will be extended to Bodden Town so the garbage trucks can get there.
Nostradamus
Check Auntie’s “Worried about emissions from incinerators” to see that there are no regulations related to waste Incineration. So it might take another 20 years.
typical ppm….the ppm are only good for wasting money.
example: can’t conclude negotiations in 2 years but can ignore civil service reform and give everybody pay increases.
Just line the damn hole in Bodden Town and let’s get on with it!