Costly landfill lag
Who said transferring a sanitary landfill would be easy? Dena Rashed reports on a continuing -- and costly -- Alexandria coast cleanliness debacle
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The landfill's proximity to beach resorts led to its relocation photo: Khaled El-Fiqi
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Last week, nearly three years since the controversy over the Borg Al-Arab sanitary landfill began, Housing Minister Ibrahim Suleiman finally ordered the immediate transfer of the site to Al-Hammam, a coastal area 80kms west of Alexandria.
The site is managed by Onyx, the French company charged with collecting Alexandria's 3,000 tons of daily garbage. The Borg Al- Arab landfill -- located some 300 metres away from the city's north coast resorts, despite environmental protection laws requiring landfills to be at least 1,500 metres away from populated areas -- was controversial from the start.
In October 2001, Onyx began delivering waste to the site, which was chosen by the Housing Ministry, Alexandria Governorate, and the Environment Ministry. Residents of the city's north coast resorts, and Bedouins living near Borg Al-Arab, soon began complaining of noxious odours and an increasing number of mosquitos in the air.
A growing media campaign prompted a visit by Prime Minister Atef Ebeid -- who announced the landfill safe, and said the smell would soon be gone. The complaints continued. In September 2002 Cairo University's Environmental Research Centre declared the site an environmental hazard, and called for its relocation.
When Ebeid paid a second visit in June 2003, he ordered the transfer of the landfill to Al-Hammam within 30 days. But the prime minister's decision left the status of the Borg Al-Arab site unclear. When the summer ended and the holidaymakers went home, the company transferred their operation back to Borg Al-Arab. Onyx Executive Manager Hassan Abaza told Al-Ahram Weekly, "the site at Al-Hammam was not meant to hold more than a year's worth of waste. It was set up in a very short amount of time to implement the prime minister's decision, but it is not as well equipped as the Borg Al-Arab site."
Another fierce media campaign prompted Housing Minister Suleiman's ordering the immediate relocation of the site to Al-Hammam.
But that decision is bound to be costly. The contract Onyx signed with the governorate stipulates that the company will not incur the costs of any change in the location of the site. Asked last year about the possibility of a move, former Managing Director Frederic Duvelle said, "we have no control over the location or relocation of the site, and the contract does not bind us to pay for the expenses of moving the site, and moving it means millions of pounds of reinvestment. The cost will be great."
Deputy Alexandria Governor Safaaeddin Kamel told the Weekly the transfer would certainly take place, but that it had not yet been "decided who would pay for [it]".
The temporary site at Al-Hammam cost the government LE10 million. The estimated tab for the permanent change of location -- LE150 million. But the new location of the sanitary landfill -- 80kms away from the city, and far from populated areas -- also means additional costs in other ways.
"The Borg Al-Arab site is 60kms away from the city as stipulated by the contract," said Abaza. "The additional costs of transferring the waste to Al-Hammam will certainly not be paid for by the company."
Although the Borg Al-Arab landfill will not receive any new waste, it will still need to be in operation. "The wastes [there] will still be treated to avoid any gas transmissions," Abaza said, meaning the new site will need new equipment as well. Abaza said setting up an environmentally safe landfill for the amount of daily waste it needs to process, "would require minimum six months to a year".
Onyx was not consulted on the location of either dump-site, Abaza said. "We will only do what we are asked to do."
Alexandria's Kamel said it was "not clear yet when the transfer will happen. It all depends on when the funding will be provided."
