A mountaineer named Tenzi recently shared his disgust at finding hundreds of pounds of garbage at the summit of Mount Everest after a reported ninth climb. It is difficult for sane persons to imagine why human beings would violate basic laws of the environment on the highest mountain in the world, reaching 29,032 feet. Surely humankind has lost its way – see link to story in the New York Post.

Reading the story for whatever reason reminded the blogmaster about the promise by David Simmons and the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) in the 80s, that Mount Stinkeroo as it has been labelled would be ‘decommissioned’. Nearly 40 years later the putrid odor continues to assail the high end environs of the West Coast, especially at this time of the year with the start of the rainy season. The same feeling of disappointment can be applied to the insuperable PSV problem, inability to enact transparency legislation, reform education, public sector reform and several other initiatives promised by successive governments.

In mid-2000 Barbados Underground added its voice to those protesting the construction of the Claire Cowan, Cahill sponsored gamification plant at Vaucluse in St. Thomas. There was no disagreement Barbados needed a practical solution to address waste disposal in Barbados, however, what was proposed by the then late Minister of the Environment was questioned because there was no ‘proof of concept’ available for Barbadians to derive a peace of mind that the design of the plant proposed was a good fit for Barbados. Thankfully the government of the day was forced to cave on the idea when a plant of similar design to Cahill exploded in Great Britain.

The fact of the matter is that a decade later Barbados is without a waste disposal solution, preferably a waste to energy although creating something named a Blue Economy. We continue to construct hotels, promise to build houses by the thousands and float with the idea of managed migration to expand the labour force, however, our waste disposal system continues to be as primitive as when David Simmons promised to do away with Mount Stinkeroo. Are we there yet?

We need Minister of the Environment Mr. Adrian Forde to present himself to the people, it could be a town hall or press briefing so that WE understand the vision for Barbados as it pertains to waste disposal. Take a leaf from colleague Dwight Sutherland’s playbook, he promised to deliver 10,000 houses over a five year period come hell or high water. Since garbage bins were distributed to households what are the next steps to separate garbage at source, implement an environmentally friendly disposal garbage system by capitalizing on waste-to-energy technology? Any plans to implement a long term solution for the South Coast Sewage plant?

We need government ministers to come and face the people or is the government a one man band. The country has been saddled with a large Cabinet funded by taxpayers, we deserve more. One gets the impression now that activity generated by the pandemic has been in decline government ministers are unsure how to fill the void.