THE Greenland Landfill and the waste transfer station are to be managed by the private sector. Permanent Secretary with responsibility for special projects, Major Neville Edwards, said that Cabinet decided that the private sector would be involved in the construction and operation of the waste transfer station, which is to be sited at Vaucluse, St. Thomas, next to the Mangrove Pond landfill. Chairman of the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) Rupert Spencer, however, stressed that this did not mean that solid waste management in Barbados was being privatised.

"At every stage of the game, the SSA will retain responsibility. How we delegate that responsibility would be a matter of policy directive from Cabinet," he said during a Government tour of the controversial landfill.

Project Director Dr. Hugh Sealy said that before the landfill was opened Government had construct the transfer station and sign management contracts for operation.

"As for the building of the transfer station, what we are talking about then is a build/own/operate transfer contract. It is a hybrid of the ordinary boot contract and we haven't worked out the final details of that because there is some question marks as to whether Government wishes the physical assets of the transfer station to be owned by the private sector."

The person to whom the contract is being awarded was not named. Sealy added Greenland would be cheaper to operate than Mangrove Pond.

"If Mangrove was operated to the standard that we wish to operate Greenland at, it would have costs of 120 per cent of Greenland. It is cheaper to operate Greenland because the cover material is on site and because of the excavation," he said.