Laventille residents breathe easy

AFTER BEING SHUT DOWN for almost a year, Angostura will re-activate its water resource recovery and anaerobic digester facility, making the plant 100 per cent compliant with the Environmental Management Authority’s parameters for operation, and allowing for the plant to operate at 100 per cent capacity.

Ian Forbes, chief operating officer at Angostura said on Monday during the launch of the facility, that it was shut down since September last year, limiting the plant for about 11 months.

“The plant was previously commissioned but it failed to meet all of its objectives and, as a consequence, we had to responsibly remedy all those shortcomings.

“When it was malfunctioning it was a nuisance because it gave off a bad odour. We also were not hitting all our EMA parameters so they knew that we had to fix it. Now we will hit 100 per cent of our parameters we will operate at full capacity, solved the odour problem and hit all our discharge parameters.”

The plant which is housed at the House of Angostura on the Eastern Main Road, Laventille, will play a key role in the distilling process, by gathering waste water and waste solids which are discharged in the distilling process and treat it so that waste water is less toxic.

Chairman Terrence Bharath in an address to stakeholders said the commissioning of the plant was one of the many achievements made, while still managing covid19.

“We achieved the construction of the plant, we helped during covid19 by converting some of our excess alcohol into hand sanitiser, and we still, during covid19, managed to innovate cocoa bitters. One of the things that we do at Angostura, is we never stop working.”

Minister of Public Utilities Fitzgerald Hinds congratulated Angostura on their commissioning of the plant, even as they continued innovations and assisted with concerns during covid19.

“I have received numerous complaints from my constituents for a number of years about some of the issues with air pollutants, and on that basis I would have interfaced with Angostura on many occasions always to find receptive ears and attempts made to ameliorate the concerns,” Hinds said.

“This development demonstrates that Angostura has as a very critical corporate citizen of TT understands the necessity to preserve the environment, and is making its own contribution in this very important platform.”