By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bahamas Waste’s chairman believes investments such as the “several million dollars” needed to prevent further fires at the New Providence landfill would eliminate the need for National Health Insurance (NHI).

Peter Andrews, writing in the BISX-listed waste services provider’s 2014 annual report, warned that the landfill fires - with their negative health and environmental consequences - would continue unless critical actions were taken.

“Speaking of the landfill, I would like to make a statement concerning the recurrent fires,” Mr Andrews told Bahamas Waste shareholders.

“As long as the landfill has no system for the collection of methane gas, and no proper closure of the ‘old’ landfill, there will be fires.

“The funds to remedy this situation would be several million dollars at least. Perhaps expenditures of this nature should preclude the need for expensive healthcare programmes.”

Mr Andrews appears to be suggesting that the Bahamian people would receive far greater value for money if the Government invested in ‘preventative medicine’ at the New Providence landfill, as opposed to a far more expensive and ambitious NHI initiative.

The Government’s consultants have pegged the total cost of NHI as between $362 million and $633 million, depending on the option chosen.

Yet the Bahamas Insurance Association (BIA), for one, suggested this was a $300 million under-estimate, placing the NHI scheme’s true cost at between $895 million to $965 million.

The persistent landfill fires have been blamed for causing respiratory and other health problems among Bahamians living in nearby communities, due to smoke/fumes inhalation and other harmful effects from the burning waste debris. They have also caused the closure of nearby businesses and schools.

The fires have continued despite the Government choosing to hand over the New Providence landfill’s management to a private company, Renew Bahamas.

That entity blamed ‘scavengers’, or intruders on to the landfill site, for causing the fires that have occurred to-date under its watch

It is unclear whether Mr Andrews’ comments are aimed at Renew Bahamas, and intended to suggest that the landfill manager is failing to undertake the investments and actions necessary to prevent further fires.

However, several sources intimately familiar with operations at the New Providence landfill have told Tribune Business that Renew Bahamas’ primary focus is sifting through, and sorting, the incoming waste streams for materials that can be used by its recycling facility.

They implied that ‘mining’ of the existing landfill site, and remediation activities on its various ‘cells’, did not appear to be Renew Bahamas’ priority despite these actions being critical to the prevention of further fires.

Kenred Dorsett, minister of the environment, recently said Renew Bahamas’ recycling initiative was the first step towards curtailing the fires that have plagued the landfill. He indicated that ‘mining’ and remediation of the existing cells would then follow.

The New Providence landfill fires, and their negative consequences, were again brought to the forefront at the weekend by Raise Awareness about the Bahamas Landfill (RABL) demonstration in downtown Nassau’s Rawson Square.

Many of the answers they and other Bahamians are seeking are likely included in the agreement between the Government and Renew Bahamas, which deals with the latter’s obligations, objectives and how it will manage the landfill.

Yet the Christie administration has yet to make the requested documents public, despite opposition MP Neko Grant tabling written House of Assembly questions asking that they do so.

Bahamas Waste was part of the consortium of local waste services providers who submitted an alternative proposal for the New Providence landfill’s management, yet their offer was rejected by the Christie administration in favour of Renew Bahamas.

Mr Andrews, meanwhile, used his company’s annual report to express concern that its own cardboard recycling initiative was now having to compete directly with Renew Bahamas’ plans.

“We will no doubt face further challenges, as the operators of the Government landfill have expressed an interest in collecting and baling cardboard for resale, a business we have been in for many years,” Mr Andrews wrote.

Tribune Business understands that Bahamas Waste holds a ‘competitive advantage’ when it comes to collection, as it ‘controls’ the pick-up from most of the major producers of waste cardboard.

And Renew Bahamas relies heavily on the BISX-listed company because, as the largest waste/garbage collection company on New Providence, it produces most of the waste that will be sorted by the landfill manager for its own recycling facility.

Still, what Mr Andrews did not say is that a public company, which is 100 per cent Bahamian-owned with a broad shareholder base, is now having to compete with an entity that is 60 per cent foreign-owned.

Mr Andrews also warned that Bahamas Waste’s other key ‘green’ initiative, its biodiesel venture, would be impacted by lower commercial fuel prices due to the drop in global oil prices.