A second town hall meeting about Project Recycle Ltd at the Lower Estate Quarry got heated, with residents saying they were offended by a video that owner Anderson Cherry showed.
In the two-hour session, residents of Salters, Lower Estate and Airy Hill on Thursday again gave businessman Anderson Cherry an earful, expressing their dissatisfaction with the six months Cherry was given to clear out what they described as a “garbage dump”. And despite the closure of operations at the quarry on October 6, the residents said that they continued to suffer due to a toxic stench coming from the quarry.
Cherry remained calm and did not say much – which did not go down well with the aggrieved audience, who later did not take kindly to his well produced video that showed the operations at the quarry.
Airy Hill resident Ian Proverbs said he felt that six months was too long a time.
“This last weekend was horrendous. You wake up on a morning you can’t open your windows or doors because it is stink . . . That is an insult to the intelligence of every man, woman and child in this room and you should be ashamed of yourself to come in here and put something like that on the screen,” he said.
An upset Avril Farrell-Craigg told of mounting health bills and wondered how they would get paid.
“When we produce our bills to you, will you be able to pay them because you somehow think that people are making sport with you? . . . You think that people stupid? These are people’s lives you are dealing with. You get up there and show us a video that you would take to a bank to borrow money – you ignorant or something?” she asked.
Mother of two, Debby-Ann Williams, made a very emotional appeal, stating that she was fearful for the safety of her 11-year-old son and two-year-old daughter.
“My house isn’t sealed nor do I have air-conditioning like others here. So could you imagine having to turn off the fan with two children who are asthmatic?” she asked.
“And I can’t sleep because I have to be watching her to make sure she is breathing properly . . . . It is not easy,” Williams said.
Tensions rose when Monique Craigwell became visibly upset, insisting that she was not able to get an answer out of Cherry about the fumes residents were inhaling. She accused the committee of not taking the situation seriously.
“People are complaining that they are sick, and I think it is critical that we know exactly what we are dealing with. We are sitting here and as far as I am concerned we playing games and I think it’s time the games stop,” she said.
During the meeting, former general manager of the Barbados Water Authority, Dr John Mwansa, retracted his earlier statement that the island’s groundwater supply was under threat. He said he felt as though they were headed in the right direction after visiting the area.
“It will take about five to six years for the water to get to the Belle Pumping Station,” Mwansa said.
“I looked at the construction debris and the section where the inert material was supposed to have been compacted. At that point there was a truck surveyor working, pushing that material up to do compacting and I assume that is one of the causes of the smells that we experienced over the weekend,” he said.
He said he foresaw no problems to the supply if no additional material was added. (TG)
