Those living in the Western Collet or Faber's Road area or even in some parts of Belama have been putting up with a putrid stench for over a week.
It's coming from the city dump - which has been reeking from the remains of a bulk load of dried fish which rotted and was left in the open to - shall we say - air out.
That stench is so vile, the word "renk" doesn't even begin to describe it. It's been suffocating residents of Faber's Road Extension who came by our studio today to beg for some relief - we tried to get answers for her:..
Patricia Gordon, Alligator Lane Faber's Road Ext'n.
"From sometime last the whole place had a lot of stench and smell. I thought that something had died like maybe a horse or a human being or maybe somebody threw filth in the area. But then this smell just getting worse and worse because everybody in the area is smelling this thing, the scent is killing us. We can't sleep at night, we can't sleep in the day, so that means that something is
going on that we don't understand. We just want answers because we cannot sleep at night and I know young people and other people in the area can testify to the same thing."
Phillip Willoughby, Councillor With Responsibility For Dump
"There was an unfortunate incident due to the weather over the past few days that wet bi-product that is being stored by the Belize Mills. Due to the weather the product got wet, it is a fish staple and because it got wet it became contaminated. It's a fish product that Belize Mills - as I was brief by their personnel, it would have been fish that would have been dry. Of course it has a high odor, but at this present moment the current garbage that will be deposited at the landfill today will be spread over the areas that the product which was contaminated by the weather at the landfill."
Jules Vasquez
"But I am saying Mr. Willoughby there is a lack of vigilance. The thing stinks. Why did it take so long for someone to figure out "ey it stinks" and we can fix it. Whose fault is it? The Council, Belize Waste Control? Who is responsible for the waste and for recognizing that it stinks?"
Phillip Willoughby, Councillor With Responsibility For Dump
"At hind sight it's a landfill that we are dealing with and at any given time it is waste that it going there. We cannot be "determinace" of what and how it will smell after it is deposited. It's after that we learn that correct it and remedial measures are put in place."
As you saw on the footage, when we visited today the remains were being spread out and covered.
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