Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 1 of 2 1 2
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline
The Government of Belize has proposed to implement a project to improve solid waste management practices in four municipalities of the Western Corridor of Belize (San Pedro Ambergris Caye, Caye Caulker, Belize City and San Ignacio/Santa Elena) that will support the goals of environmental protection, natural resource conservation, and protection of public health, safety and welfare.

This project will contribute to improving the environment and protecting the public health. In addition, it will enhance the image of Belize in the eco-tourism market and strengthen the Solid Waste Management Authority of Belize as the entity responsible for improving solid waste management in the country.

The entire system for solid waste management in the Western Corridor, comprising the new infrastructure will be implemented under a Design-Build-Operate (DBO) contract, which will be required to meet both operational and environmental performance standards. The access road from Mile 24 Western Highway to the Sanitary Landfill is not part of the DBO contract.

This project specifically includes the design, construction and operation of the infrastructure works as follows:

*Closure of dumpsites at San Pedro Ambergris Caye, Caye Caulker, Belize City and San Ignacio/Santa Elena;

*Design, build and operate transfer stations at San Pedro Ambergris Caye, Caye Caulker, Belize City and San Ignacio/Santa Elena;

*Incorporation of recyclable material "drop-off areas" and designated areas for white goods/bulky waste and HHW at the transfer stations;

*Transportation between transfer stations and the Mile 24 Regional Sanitary Landfill; and barging of waste from San Pedro Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker to the Belize Port for long haul to the Mile 24 Regional Sanitary Landfill.

For San Pedro surveying and studying for this project commenced on Sunday, January 16 and according to Mr. Gilroy Lewis, Project Director at Belize Solid Waste Management Authority, the vicinity for the transfer station on the island will be located in the lagoon area by Consolidated Waters Ltd.

A waste/generation/composition study has been carried out so as to determine the certain type of waste that is generated on the island and based on that an enclosed building will be constructed for the transfer station and the dumpsite should be closed by January 2012. All waste will be collected and transported by barges to the Regional Sanitary Landfill located in Mile 24 on the Western Highway.

The Solid Waste Management Authority, executing agency, is staffed with qualified engineers to implement this long awaited project for the benefit of Belizeans along the Western Highway and surrounding areas. The Solid Waste Management Authority extends their assurances to the general public that they will ensure that these facilities are built to the high standards specified in the Bidding Documents, which will also be verified/validated by the funding agencies, the Construction Quality Assurance/Control Engineer, Operations Audit Firm, the DOE and a Community Advisory Group that will be formed.

Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 6,267
Offline
What is the "Western Corridor" - and how do San Pedro, Caye Caulker,Belize City and San Ignacio fall into this designation?





Joined: May 2011
Posts: 1,520
Offline
Originally Posted by Marty
For San Pedro surveying and studying for this project commenced on Sunday, January 16 and according to Mr. Gilroy Lewis, Project Director at Belize Solid Waste Management Authority, the vicinity for the transfer station on the island will be located in the lagoon area by Consolidated Waters Ltd.

The Solid Waste Management Authority extends their assurances to the general public that they will ensure that these facilities are built to the high standards specified in the Bidding Documents, which will also be verified/validated by the funding agencies, the Construction Quality Assurance/Control Engineer, Operations Audit Firm, the DOE and a Community Advisory Group that will be formed.



I'd want to see a very thorough runoff protection plan for the proposed structure.

Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 462
C
Offline
C
another selling point for "Suger Caye"?

Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline
OFFICIAL UPDATES ON SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PROJECT

The Belize Solid Waste Management Project continues on schedule. The first phase has been completed and come the start of the New Year, the second phase is expected to commence with the building of the sanitary landfill just off the Western Highway at mile twenty four. The Solid Waste Management Project involves the Western Corridor covering San Pedro town, Caye Caulker village as well as the twin towns of San Ignacio and Santa Elena. That is roughly fifty percent of the nation's population, which generates a significant amount of solid waste. Director of the Solid Waste Management Authority Gilroy Lewis says the project aims to improve the solid waste management in the western corridor, as well as clean up the country's aesthetic image. The government of Belize signed off on the project in 2009 and going into the second year, the project will see the Belize City dumpsite at mile three on the Western Highway transformed into what is being called a transfer station.

Gilroy Lewis - Director, Solid Waste Management
"The operations at that it dumpsite is unsustainable in terms of capacity, the nuisance situation that arises there in terms of odor, pests, vermin, fires, flies and so forth. Component one of the project will close off from an engineering point of view that dumpsite and a transfer station will be built there. We are hoping to build an enclosed structure and then the trucks that collect the garbage in the city will drive inside of that building and then there is a concrete tipping floor where they would dump the garbage and then they would drive out again. So when you look there you would not see anything because everything will be taking place inside. We hope that people will still recover some of the materials off the tipping floor and when that is completed we would have a front end loader that we would use to load the garbage into 40 foot trailers. Once these trailers are filled then the trailers would be hauled to the mile 24 sanitary landfill."

The access road leading to where the Sanitary Landfill will be established has already been constructed. Lewis says that component two of the western corridor solid waste management project is right on target.

Gilroy Lewis - Director, Solid Waste Management
"We are hoping that by January, February of 2012 we would start the construction of the sanitary landfill so we wanted the road to be placed first so that we have access to the facility. So that is component two of the project which is the sanitary landfill in itself and the construction of the access road. People might wonder what is a sanitary landfill, in comparison to a dumpsite. The major difference between a sanitary landfill and a dumpsite is one of control and order. In a dumpsite what you have is a haphazard operation, the trucks just come in and then they dump the garbage anywhere, they could even dump it on the access road to the site itself and what it does is that the garbage just back up into the highway, everything there is not controlled, it does not have any cover material so that the flies does not have access to the garbage, there is no compaction, so all these defficiences cause environmental impacts."

Lewis says the new sanitary landfill will eliminate a lot of the environmental impacts currently posed by the Belize City dumpsite.

Gilroy Lewis - Director, Solid Waste Management
"For example there the impacts there are to the water because that is a wetland. There's water under the garbage dump so ground water is being impacted and then that might migrate to the sea and so on. You also have the odor from the degrading garbage, whenever it catches fire then you have the additional problem of all the smoke and the quality of life is also impaired by managing a dumpsite. We find out that people believe that dumpsites are the cheapest thing but in fact they are not that cheap because to remediate that site."

LOVEFM

Joined: May 2011
Posts: 1,520
Offline
//ambergriscaye.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/415209/SAN_PEDRO_RESIDENTS_CONDUCTS_C.html#Post415209

Thanks for the update Marty, this is a pet project and interest of mine. I'm hoping the landfill uses a good runoff protection plan and has evalauted the mainland area's soils for permeabilty and aquifer impacts.

Last edited by Bear; 08/31/11 10:34 AM.
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline

An Update on the Western Corridor Solid Waste Management Project

The Solid Waste Management Authority (SWMA) and the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment are in the process of implementing the Solid Waste Management Project for the Western Corridor of Belize (San Pedro, Caye Caulker, San Ignacio/Santa Elena and Belize City). The main objective of the project is to improve solid waste management practices and reduce environmental pollution, further enhancing the image of Belize in the eco-tourism market, through better management of municipal dump sites.

Here in San Pedro, a survey was conducted in September of 2010. The study was entitled "Willingness and Affordability to Pay" and "Waste Characterization Study". This was carried out in conjunction with the local authorities. Foreman for the San Pedro Town Council (SPTC) informed The San Pedro Sun that while this survey was completed, the SPTC is yet to receive a copy of the report materializing from that survey.

Under this program, biodegradable garbage material would remain on the island while hazardous solid waste products would be collected and transported to a Regional Sanitary Landfill (RSL) at mile 24 of the Western Highway. The entire project is scheduled to be completed in four phases at an estimated cost of $14,789,000US.

The first part of the project calls for the closure of Belize City's dumpsite at mile 3.5 on the Western Highway and the construction of a transfer station. This first step is close to completion, and is being done in phases. The complete closure of the dumpsite and construction of the transfer/recycling station is planned to commence in early 2012.

Phase two calls for the construction of a RSL at mile 24 of the Western Highway. In 2010 a topographic survey of the 2.09 miles of access road to the RSL was completed and on August 22nd, the contractor received the Final Inspection Certificate of the two-lane paved 2.09 miles of access road. The second portion of this phase will be the actual construction of the RSL. This is planned to commence early next year. The contractor for this project will be procured through International Competitive Bidding (ICD).

Phase three calls for the closure of all open dumpsites serving the Western Corridor and construction of transfer stations, which are scheduled to go underway in 2012.

Phase four deals with External International Consultants in four areas; Design a Cost Recovery Mechanism/Plan to recover the capital, operational, administration and maintenance cost of the facilities; Provide Institutional Strengthening in legal-institutional, technical-environmental, financial, procurement, contracting, monitoring and supervision of solid waste management; Structure and Conduct the Design Build Operate (DBO) Scheme, which is currently in progress. DBO Bidding Documents for the infrastructure works ( closure of dumpsites and construction of transfer stations at each Western Corridor locations and RSL at Mile 24 Western Highway) have been issued to four pre-qualified firms. Bids are expected to be submitted on September 28, 2011. The contract is expected to be awarded in November/December 2011, and finally Waste Generation and Composition Consultancy to determine the quantity and quality of municipal solid waste generated in each of the Western Corridor municipalities.

Work at the RSL to prepare the first cell to receive solid waste is expected to start in January/February of 2012. Here in San Pedro, the transfer station will be constructed along the stretch of road leading to the Marina.

The San Pedro Sun


Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 462
C
Offline
C
The intersection to the dump site on the w. hwy is actually thought out to safely consider through traffic and accommidate heavy trucks turning off. A first in Belize!!

Joined: May 2011
Posts: 1,520
Offline
On paper this is actually looking pretty well thought out. I wish there was some way to get hold of the cell design specs to check the cell construction requirements. Also it would really be worth their while to evalaute future methane gas extraction to operate a small gas turbine power plant. The plant could offset electrical costs and perhaps even supplement the grid.

Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline

New solid waste transfer station underway in San Pedro

Work on the construction of a garbage transfer station on Ambergris Caye has commenced in the Marina Area south of San Pedro Town. The garbage transfer station is a part of the national Solid Waste Management Project (SWMP) which will see the garbage generated on the island transferred to mainland Belize for proper disposal. The Government of Belize (GOB) proposed to implement the project over a four-year period starting in 2009. The actual project is expected to be fully functional in early 2013.

After obtaining all legal licenses and permits from the Department of Environment, mangrove clearance has commenced with dredging and land fill to follow shortly thereafter. The preliminary site layout will include an administrative building with ample parking area and suitable access to the site. There will also be a transfer/loading building in which the collection trucks will discharge the garbage onto a tipping floor. It will be at that stage that recyclables contained in the garbage will be recovered by the waste pickers and bailed. A storage area will also be constructed to store the bailed recyclables recovered from the transfer loading building. There will also be a Material Drop-off Facility. Once sorted, residual garbage (garbage left after sorting) will then be barged to the mainland and hauled to mile 24 on the Western Highway at the Regional Sanitary Landfill for final disposal. Upon completion the SWMP transfer station in San Pedro Town will sit on a total of 2.5 acres of land.

With the rapid development and an increase in population, San Pedro Town has been generating more garbage adding pressure to the current garbage disposal system. Currently most of the garbage generated by the island is taken to a dump site on southern Ambergris Caye. Once there all the garbage is regularly burned, creating a thick cloud of smoke over the southern portion of the island and causing serious health and environmental concerns. But with the implementation of the SWMP, it is expected that the current garbage disposal system on the island will be discontinued. According to Technical Environmental Specialist for the SWMP Ramy Chia, this year alone, it is expected that Ambergris Caye will generate some 3,480 short tons of solid waste from commercial and residential usage. One short ton is equivalent to about 2,000 lbs. so 3,480 short tons will be approximately seven million lbs. It is projected that by the year 2030 the island would be generating approximately 8,173 short tons of garbage per year or 37.5 million lbs. per year.

Click here to read the rest of the article and see more photos in the San Pedro Sun


Page 1 of 2 1 2

Link Copied to Clipboard
March
S M T W T F S
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
Cayo Espanto
Click for Cayo Espanto, and have your own private island
More Links
Click for exciting and adventurous tours of Belize with Katie Valk!
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 284 guests, and 0 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Forum Statistics
Forums44
Topics79,199
Posts500,011
Members20,460
Most Online7,413
Nov 7th, 2021



AmbergrisCaye.com CayeCaulker.org HELP! Visitor Center Goods & Services San Pedro Town
BelizeSearch.com Message Board Lodging Diving Fishing Things to Do History
BelizeNews.com Maps Phonebook Belize Business Directory
BelizeCards.com Picture of the Day

The opinions and views expressed on this board are the subjective opinions of Ambergris Caye Message Board members
and not of the Ambergris Caye Message Board its affiliates, or its employees.

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5