But one thing Habet does have to know about is the woeful state of the waste transfer stations. We've brought it up with him before when we asked about the situation at the Belmopan landfill.
Well, when we followed up today- since the mess persists - Habet had what might be called, "a different Sankey to sing." He said there isn't sufficient funding to contract enough people to move the solid waste from one transfer station to another.
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development
"What is happening is that we are seeing there is an apparent lack of infrastructure or equipment from the people who have the contracts to move the solid waste from the transfer station to the national landfill. These can be for several reasons and I think we have said some of these before that I believe personally- and looking at what is at the information -we are getting at the landfill. Cause when we go in with our trucks they weigh them and it is showing that a lot more solid waste is being taken from the transfer stations to the national landfills that what they some years ago had contracted out for. So the monies are really not sufficient to move all the garbage. So, 2 things; one, maybe they are not getting sufficient funding to do it, and, 2, I also think that if they don't have the proper equipment then they won't be able to move the garbage sufficiently or appropriately because they are supposed to be paid on weight and not on volume. And so if you don't have the compacting truck to really compact it and take the amount you'll be doing 2 trips instead of one so that is very costly."
