quote:Originally posted by albert:
A rice mill at Cane Grove that has been polluting hundreds of residents with dust for years was Thursday given six weeks to convince authorities that modifications will bring an end to the environmental problem.
Residents complain that the mill, which is owned by Faizul Hack, creates a cloud of dust over their East Coast Demerara community when it is in operation.
A community meeting of more than 100 persons was told by the Head of Guyana's Environmental Protection Agency, Indarjit Ramdass that vents at the top of the silos would be removed and a duct system would be installed to collect the dust that would be pulled by an extractor fan and collected in a bag-house.
“We expect this system to work. There is still some fine-tuning to be done, some further testing but, together with the consultants at the University of Guyana, they have come up with a good solution to the problem here,” Ramdass said.
He acknowledged that the new system would be somewhat expensive but expressed confidence that it would work.
Hack said work has already begun on the modifications. Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud said there would be two trial-periods leading up to the end of August to ascertain whether the modification would work.
Inspections are to be conducted by officials of the EPA, Guyana Rice Development Board and the Faculty of Technology along with 10 community representatives.
Lecturer at the Faculty of Technology, Isidro Espinosa expressed optimism that the modification that has been borrowed from Robert Badal’s mill would work on Hack’s facility.
Espinosa said between 90 to 96 percent of the dust would be collected by the new facility.
Despite a previous recommendation by the EPA that the mill be removed from the community, Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud remained adamant that the facility remain at Cane Grove and allowed to resume operations only after the mill is fitted to stop dust pollution.
“Unless the facility is fixed, the mill will not be allowed to operate or certified,” he said, cautioning that if the mill is shut down permanently it would affect the rice growing community.
Under pressure from one of three vocal residents, Hack admitted that the mill was constructed without permission from the relevant authorities.
Persaud then insisted that Hack receives all approvals and permissions before it resumes operation.
In an apparent reference to the Alliance For Change (AFC) that has spoken out on the issue, the Agriculture Minister urged residents to guard against people “shopping around grievances.”
Thursday’s community meeting was a follow-up to a closed door session with community representatives, President Bharrat Jagdeo and the Agriculture Minister.
These good people at Cane Grove are thankful that the AFC supported them in forcing the government to take action on this matter. The AFC lead the way, and the government followed by taking action. The AFC has shown here it forced this.