Gov’t urged to get cracking on waste-to-energy plans

WESTERN BUREAU:

British High Commissioner to Jamaica Asif Ahmad is urging the Jamaican Government to act now in order to ensure sustainability in deciding on the 17 proposals of interest it has received to transform waste into energy, which is expected to reduce the country’s energy bill.

Jamaica is currently generating an estimated 1.4 million tons of garbage annually, the vast majority of which is dumped or buried at landfills across the country.

“In truth, many islands in the Caribbean have no real formal waste-collection and treatment process. It is simply dumped, but that can be converted into energy,” Ahmad said while addressing town and city planners at the just-concluded Caribbean Sustainable Cities conference, which was hosted by The University of the West Indies, Mona – Western Jamaica Campus in Montego Bay.

“But there are 17 proposals from various interests that have been put to the Jamaican Government over many years, and it’s time that one of those be activated so this waste can turn into something highly productive, useful and becomes, therefore, more sustainable,” added Ahmad.

In 2016, Prime Minister Andrew Holness appointed a nine-member enterprise team to identify a preferred waste management provider for the divestment of the Riverton Landfill, to include establishing a waste-to-energy system in Jamaica and the contracting out of the solid-waste collection and solid-waste management of the country.

While some four years have elapsed, Jamaica continues to dump its solid waste on landfills operated across the country by the National Solid Waste Management Authority, despite a tendering process.

Plans well advanced

In an interview with The Gleaner on Monday, Lyttleton Shirley, chairman of the enterprise team managing the proposed divestment, said the push to transform waste to energy is going through a process that would also require Cabinet approval on the point of reference that the Government intends to return to the market with.

“We are well advanced. Yes, I know there are a lot of interests locally and internationally, but while people showed interest, when the rubber hits the ground the story is different,” said Shirley.

“People want solid information, especially when you have an interest in a major investment of that nature. We are ensuring this time around there is no error, because it had gone out to tender before without any success, primarily because of the lack of information,” continued Shirley.

According to Shirley, his team is making sure that bidders will take the Government seriously this time around.

“The bidders felt that there was not enough detailed information that would invite a serious interest and at that time, the whole approach was really just the collection of waste. We have gone beyond that now, and we are looking at the conversion of waste to energy, new storage, and the relocation of the Riverton dump site; so there is a new whole approach to what we are doing now,” added Shirley.

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