environment

Old dump vexes Colón

LA PRENSA

toxic smoke chokes colón 1030543

Nearly 20 years after the collapse of the Colón district's main landfill, municipal authorities continue to vacillate over where to establish a new site, provoking concerns about the health of residents and the environment.

Toxic smoke from trash fires at the dump chokes Colón's Casco Viejo area before wafting into the communities of Margarita, Arco Iris, José Domingo Espinar, José Dominador Bazán and the city of Cristóbal.

"Every day we have to breathe air polluted by toxic smoke and our children are becoming sick. How long we will have to wait for the solution?" said Maritza Vega, resident of one of the multi-family units on Avenida Bolívar. "Mayors and representatives come and go, but no one does nothing to solve the problem affecting the health of [Colón residents]; everything remains in the planning stage and nothing materializes."

Tanisha Lewis, emergency room director at Hospital Manuel Amador Guerrero, said she could not confirm that the increase in cases arriving with respiratory problems are the result of the clouds of smoke, since the arrival of the rainy season generates a similar number of cases. Lewis agreed, however, that the landfill problem should be resolved, because the noxious fumes do affect health.

Colón district mayor Antonio Latiff explained that although officials have considered 10 potential new dump sites, none of them meets development requirements.

Latiff said that locating a replacement landfill site is a priority for his administration but that an assessment of the most promising location, in Bahía Las Minas, Cativá, found it unsuitable because of its proximity rivers and creeks. Moreover, the equipment needed to fill the land was not available.

Alvis Pinto, director of the Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (Anam) in Colón, confirmed that the potential sites were discarded because they failed to meet health standards stipulating that a landfill must take in at least 50 hectares, maintain a distance of two kilometers from the population and eight kilometers from an airport, and be removed from any underground water sources.

The Anam official announced a resolution had been made to close the Colón landfill, and said his institution had hired Aguaseo, S.A. to assess the extent of environmental deterioration in the area.