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| Smoke from the dump is causing breathing problems for people. Express photo |
It has been burning since last Thursday at the site that is used to dump waste from households and some industries in the east. Some of the smoke has reached the town of Tunapuna, which is several kilometres away.
The Express newspaper reported Saturday that people are complaining of experiencing difficulty breathing.
Integrated Waste Systems is responsible for controlling the landfill site, which is closed to the public. It operates the facility for the state-owned Trinidad & Tobago Solid Waste Management Company (SWMCOL).
A senior official of the company told the paper, "We are trying to suffocate the fire using cover material and we use heavy equipment to suppress the fire. A combination of that and excavators to separate the areas that are burnable from those that are not and water when necessary."
General Manager Uche Osuji urged citizens top stay indoors and keep doors and windows closed.
Osuji dismissed the suggestion that toxic fumes are spewing from the landfill. He told local media that only non-toxic items are dumped there. However people who live in the area say that is not so. They claim that copper, aluminium and plastics are dumped in the landfill among household waste.
The MP for the area, Rodger Samuel, is concerned about the implications. "I am of the opinion and villagers are saying to me that this is an annual thing, where the dump is set ablaze to diminish the waste on the site," he said.
Samuel called the fire an environmental disaster. "I think the EMA needs to come and look at it. I think measures need to be put in place to ensure this does not happen again," Samuel told the Express.
The MP noted that controlling the fire is a difficult matter since dousing it with water will create more smoke.
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