Business View Caribbean - April 2016 75
agement responsibility for the parishes of Hanover,
Westmoreland, Trelawny, and St. James.”
Pryce also talks about some of the new initiatives the
agency has taken in order to help control any future
fires, especially at the Riverton facility, the largest mu-
nicipal dump on the island. “We saw a critical need
to establish a fire suppressant system at the largest
disposal site that we have,” he says. “This suppres-
sant system is comprehensive and it involves install-
ing onsite water storage facilities. We have a 120,000
gallon capacity tank there, which takes its source of
water from a nearby river. And that is available on the
disposal site, itself. Water from the tank is pumped to
hydrants, strategically placed, that will be able to ser-
vice each cell of the disposal site. So, once there is a
breakout of a fire on the site, the workers there are
trained by our local fire department to be able to be
first responders to that fire. So, we have that in place.
We also have vent pipes that release the gases that
come about from the interaction of different compo-
nents of the garbage, which aids in preventing sponta-
neous combustion.”
Pryce adds that refuse is now better divided into sepa-
rate cells that are now part of a rotation system; each
one is covered when not in active use, “We open dif-
ferent cells at different times,” he says. And some new
landfill equipment was also recently purchased. But
the new Interim Director laments the lack of funding
that the NSWMA sorely needs in order to truly trans-
form itself into a 21st century institution. “You never
get all the money that you want,” he says ruefully.
