Business View Caribbean - August 2016 81
BVM:
Will fees be imposed at some point?
Auguste:
It depends on the attitude or policy of the
government at any particular time. It was suggested
that it be XCD 100 per year, per household, with a limit
being set to exclude the poor and indigent, so people
who could afford it would pay for it and there could be
subsidies for those who couldn’t pay. The government
didn’t want to go that way. What they did was to imple-
ment an environmental levy on visitors. For every visi-
tor coming into the country, we collect $4.08 through
the Saint Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority (SLASPA).
This provides a mechanism for revenue generation for
the SLSWMA to assist in funding some of our activi-
ties. We also have a revenue stream from the provi-
sion of landfilling services to cruise ships and also to
major supermarkets and suppliers in the country who
have waste to dispose of, in addition to other private
concerns that require special disposals. We have es-
tablished rates for these services that are based on
the quantity and the kind of material to be handled.
So, we also generate some revenue from these. There
are, also, occasional funding opportunities from in-
ternational organizations and friendly governments
for purposes of fulfilling requirements of international
conventions.
BVM
: Has anything recently occurred, or is anything
planned for the near-term future, that’ll impact the
way you do things – expansions, efficiency upgrades,
new facilities, etc.?
Auguste:
We are preparing for the implementation
of a UNEP-funded (United Nations Environment Pro-
gram) project that will look at Saint Lucia’s strategy for
waste management. We developed an initial strategy
in 2003, but it was never submitted for the approval of
the Cabinet of Ministers. At that time, there had just
been an election followed by a change of administra-
tion. The strategy document, however, is still used for
guidance. The UNEP initiative will review the existing
strategy for relevance to the current situation, taking
stock of the progress made and proposing the direc-
tion for the future, probably over the next ten years. We
are about to sign the Small Scale Funding Agreement
