St Helena : St Helena: LAUNCH OF SOLID WASTE STRATEGY
Submitted by Saint Helena Herald (Public Relations Information Office) 22.11.2012 (Article Archived on 06.12.2012)
St Helena’s new strategy for Solid Waste Management was officially launched on Tuesday 20 November 2012 with a Press Briefing at the Millennium Forest and site visit to the Horse Point Landfill.
LAUNCH OF SOLID WASTE STRATEGY
St Helena’s new strategy for Solid Waste Management was officially launched on Tuesday 20 November 2012 with a Press Briefing at the Millennium Forest and site visit to the Horse Point Landfill.
The strategy which links to National Goal 3 of the SHG’s Sustainable Development Plan - Effective Management of the Environment - is committed to managing solid waste in a more sustainable way in future years - a target also included in the National Environment Management Plan - which sets out the blueprint for implementation of National Goal 3 for the next 10 years.
The launch was attended by representatives from Civil Society, the private sector, St Helena Government, the media and interested members of the public. Key speakers were Tara Pelembe, Director of Environmental Management, Georgina Young, Senior Environmental Health Officer and Ian Rummery, Environmental Risk Manager, the strategic lead on Solid Waste for the Environmental Management Directorate.
Ian said of Tuesday’s event:
“We were very pleased with the interest shown. There is a lot of work to be done but we are confident that we will get the infrastructure and processes in place to improve the management of solid waste on the Island.”
During the short tour of the Horse Point landfill site, Ian explained how the site would be improved under the guidance of the new strategy.
Horse Point is the only landfill site on the Island and is in need of modernisation to ensure the most efficient use is made of the limited space – this requires an investment in both infrastructure and equipment to improve the site by the end of next year.
Improvements will include a purposely built reception building, where all waste will be left for convenient transportation onto the site via an internal road. The site itself will then be composed of individual waste cells which will be covered by netting to limit the risk of bird strike to aircraft and there will also be a Civic Amenity Area where the public will be able to drop off unwanted items that can be reused by others.
Currently all St Helena’s waste is dumped at the landfill site at Horse Point – high freight charges mean that waste cannot be exported overseas
Bird Strike is currently a potential problem - the Horse Point landfill is regularly used as a food source by some 150 pigeons. A Bird Management Plan is being put in place to monitor potential Bird Strike risk and lethal management is already in place – to date 59 pigeons have been shot.
SHG
22 November 2012
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