BRIEFS. public services

Chiriquí town shuts down unhygienic dump

The city of Dolega, in the Chiriquí province, ordered the permanent closure of the municipal landfill following several complaints that trash from the dump was finding its way into nearby creeks and rivers, one of them being Caño Dolega, a popular bathing hole during the summer months.

Dolega Mayor Rafael Rivera said the decision was made to close the landfill even though no alternate site has yet been chosen because of the severity of the problem.

“We’ll try to find a place and the funds necessary to build a landfill that doesn’t affect the community at large, because the current one is a health hazard,” he added.

Inés Pérez, a resident of Dolega, hopes that the waterways will be cleaner now that the dump is closed. In the past, Pérez said she tiptoed through the area to avoid stepping on the decomposing odds and ends that accumulated by the creek.

“We encounter all kinds of things along the path, from bones, insects and dead chickens to coffins,” she said. “And all of it is tossed into the dump and moved about by rain water until children find themselves up to the waste in that mess.”

Fellow resident Lino Pittí said that the dump is located in the northern part of Dolega, just meters from another community that has also feared for years that an epidemic was imminent.

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