City’s dumpsite still on fire, residents complain about health
The Fire Department and NEMO are battling round two of a fire at the Belize City Dumpsite. The fire was extinguished weeks ago, but flared up again in the past few days, causing a suffocating stench. The smoke has been spreading into the city to the discomfort of residents and drivers on the Western Highway are experiencing poor visibility. Duane Moody spoke to residents today who are being affected by the smoke.
Duane Moody, Reporting
The most recent fire at the dumpsite at two and a half miles on the Western Highway has been growing and now a blanket of toxic fumes has spread over sections of Belize City. For some residents it has become a health hazard.
Joan Neal, Affected by Fire at Dumpsite
“I have wah grandson we got asthma and last night I mi think something di burn inna my house cause I just hear he di cough. But when I get up and I open my window, di place foggy, foggy, foggy. I had to get up and tend to he cause he got asthma bad. Ih choke you every minute. Yoh can’t do nothing good. When yoh open up yoh think dah fog di come but I noh know. I nearly neva send he dah school dis morning but I end up di send ah because ih she ih feel betta.”
Educational facilities, including St. John Vianney Primary School and the Y.M.C.A., are also being affected.
Clara Cuellar, Executive Director, Y.M.C.A.
“In the evening time, it’s very hard to breath, it’s burning the eyes of our students and teachers so we get complaints from the parents. Last week it nearly was consistent, everyday we had problems last week. It’s very tricky because sometimes you look around and you don’t see the smoke but it is here. Unless you go from a further distance—since I also live in the area—and you take a wide range view, you will see how it’s moving into the sky like a cloud itself. Last week twice, we sent home youths early in the evening. However, we are struggling to solve this problem and over end of last week and today, I spoke to people in the Ministry of Education and in Health and I even went to City Council myself to try and encourage us getting together and trying to figure out how to solve the problem because for us there’s two issues. There’s the fact that the dump is on fire and help is needed, even if at the national level to address it and the next greater issue is that there is a constant health problem on a daily basis back here.”
Felix Sutherland, Principal, St. John Vianney Primary School
“We had about five of them sitting on the table because they displayed signs of asthma and some with burning eyes. Myself, suffer as a result of, I imagine, of the smoke. I suffer the whole day, up to this point I am still experiencing some burning sensation in my eyes. As the teachers would experience some sign of difficulty breathing, they would send the children to the office and as a result of that, we would have to deal with them. So directly, yes.”
Duane Moody
“What were the different signs of illness that these kids were displaying? I know you said some of them had problems breathing, what else?”
Felix Sutherland
“Nausea, some complain of headaches, chest pain and, like I said, the eyes.”
Clara Cuellar
“We’d like some help on deciding what should be the practices that we should be putting in place at this point in time to help the neighbourhood because we don’t know, are we supposed to be washing our eyes more because this is not regular smoke, this is toxic.”
According to Councillor Philip Willoughby, local government is collaborating with various ministries to control the fire and the health risks.
Philip Willoughby, Councillor Responsible for Garbage Collection
“The city is pretty much concerned and aware of what is taking place. One, in particular the Belama area; one, two, three and four, and the Fabers Road extension area and the Jane Usher Boulevard area. This morning I spoke with Mr. Bernard from the Ministry of Health. He is focusing his—them as a participatory agency to please get on the ground and evaluate the matter with regards to the fumes and the smoke that have affected the various areas aforementioned. So he will, I believe on the Ministry of Health’s part, they will be putting out some release or some information with regards of what and what not to do if a contaminants has any internal respiratory virus or mental or skin. For our people from the City Council side we have, as what I show you, the mask. These were donated through the kind courtesies of Belize Waste Control Limited, seeing the difficulties we had to operate within the landfill. They have ordered I believe a dozen or more of these masks with filters and so forth to assist the City Council in assisting the National Fire Service in fighting, trying to extinguish the inferno at the dumpsite.”
Willoughby says that effective today a policy by the Solid Waste Management Authority will be in place to convert the dumpsite into a controlled disposal facility. Duane Moody reporting for News Five.
