Belize's Solid Waste Management Plan is taking shape with the establishment of the New Regional Sanitary Landfill at mile 24.
That landfill will take in the waste from San Pedro, Caye Caulker, Belize City and San Ignacio/Santa Elena.
It's good news but it's also a big change and the challenge is, getting word out.
That's why the Solid Waste Management Authority along with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Agriculture held a half-day Stakeholders workshop on Wednesday.
The purpose of the workshop was essentially to listen to the opinions of the participants as to how best the Solid Waste Management Project can be brought to the Belizean population.
Tyrone Chimilio explained:
Tyrone Chimilio, Social Communications Officer
"This is a stakeholder's workshop that we are having in accordance to the solid waste management project. The solid waste management project focuses on 4 components; one being the Belize City dump site at mile 3, we are closing that down - it's still operational but it's being closed down. Secondly, we have our sanitary landfill on mile 24 on the George Price Highway as also our third component focuses on the closing down of the open dump sites in San Pedro, Caye Caulker and San Ignacio. We'll have transferred facilities there for waste disposal. Actually what is going to be taking place is that we are going to have the separation of waste taking place at the transfer facilities."
"When it comes to the workshop - the stakeholder's workshop, we have our stakeholders here from the various municipalities as well as board members. The intention of the workshop is to make sure that we are emphasizing a collective association and discussion with these partners, so that when it comes to the actual implementation of the solid waste management project it is across the board within these municipalities. We want to modify the behaviors of the Belizean public because we focus on the awareness as well as the education programs."
The Social Communication Strategy for the Solid Waste Management Project is currently being designed.
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