The San Pedro Town Council’s foreman Samuel Gonzalez travelled to San Salvador, El Salvador to attend a four-day training program on June 5, 2012. Gonzalez was part of a Belizean delegation who received training on solid waste management as part of the National Solid Waste Management Plan.
According to Samuel Gonzalez, during the trip they were taken to several municipalities in El Salvador where they learned different ways solid waste management is carried out. Most of the municipalities have adopted the same concept as Belize will adapt to.
“One of the concepts that I believe we can adapt here on the Island is that of implementing an educational campaign,” stated Gonzalez to Ambergris Today. “We visited San Jose Departamento de Union where a huge educational campaign was carried out by the government officials in which they went house to house explaining to the people on how to properly dispose of their garbage. They even provided garbage bags and other material for the campaign after which they target schools and children for all to learn proper solid waste disposal.”
According to Gonzalez, this is something that the San Pedro Town Council could adapt so that Island residents can follow when the time comes for the old dumpsite to be closed. Once this happens the garbage collected will be delivered to a transfer station and then barged out to Belize City to Mile 24 Regional Sanitary Landfill.
The transfer station will be located near the Marina on the west side of Ambergris Caye and the land is yet to be cleared out for the facility to be constructed. Samuel Gonzalez has an educational background in solid waste management and says he learned a lot in this recent training program. He plans to present his new knowledge to the San Pedro Town Council with hopes that new and better solid waste management procedures will be implemented here in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye.
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