Canadian diplomat visits Guanapo landfill

Canadian High Commissioner to TT Carla Hogan Rufelds, paid a visit recently to SWMCOL’s Guanapo Landfill site to examine the application of Canadian Clean Technology to the treatment of pollutants in landfill leachate. Leachate refers to the liquids percolating through the landfill site that has extracted the soluble and suspended components of the waste.

In his welcome address to the delegation, SWMCOL chairman Shamshad Mohamed advised that the company’s Engineered Wetlands Leachate Treatment Pilot Project was in keeping with Government’s Vision 2030 National Development Strategy for the environment – “placing the environment at the centre of social and economic development.”

The project is a collaborative effort between SWMCOL, Enman Services Limited and Canadian firm Oceans-EWS Treatment Ltd. Glenn Sharp, President of OceansEWS, explained that the engineered wetlands system utilized the natural aerobic biological activity of the plants to break down contaminants and thereafter filter the leachate, resulting in a treated effluent that is safe for discharge into the watercourses.

The system provides a lower cost, more environmentally friendly treatment option when compared with other mechanical treatment systems.

SWMCOL’s Chief Executive Officer Ronald Roach, said this is the first time such a system is being used for the treatment of landfill leachate in the Caribbean and indicated that the process could be replicated at other landfill sites in the country and across the region.

Canada has become a world leader in environmental and waste management technologies and within recent times several Canadian companies have been instrumental in various projects in the waste management sector in Trinidad including the development of a waste management strategy and action plan for Trinidad and Tobago; and the development of preliminary designs for an engineered sanitary landfill.