Arawak promises to get rid of stench before September

Investigations by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) have revealed that the stench coming from Arawak Chicken’s waste water treatment system at Mausica will affect pupils of  St Barbara’s Spiritual Shouter Baptist Primary School when it opens in September. As a result, EMA managing director/CEO Dr Joth Singh met with a management team from Arawak Chicken at the company’s Mausica headquarters on Wednesday. An EMA release yesterday said the EMA had received a complaint about the smell from Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh. The smell marred the formal opening of the school on Shouter Baptist Liberation Day, March 30, when Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar delivered the opening address. 

 

 

Investigations revealed that the odour was, for the most part, being emitted from the plant’s waste water treatment system which is upwind of the school. The company gave a commitment to solve the problem before the school opens.

“We also made it clear to Arawak that the EMA would be monitoring the progress of their proposed solutions very closely to ensure that the timeline is indeed met,” Singh said in the release. He said when the EMA visited Arawak Chicken with the Education Facilities Company Ltd and the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation, some suggestions were made to address the issue.

 

 

These include de-sludging the retention ponds and using additional aerators. “When the EMA visited Arawak last Wednesday the ponds were already dredged as promised. “The Arawak team also indicated that the company is committed to the utilisation of best practices governing the industry,” the release said. Singh advised the Arawak team the smell was a sign that there is a malfunction in the system and that the water-treatment process is inadequately set up or not big enough to manage the load, the release added. Singh suggested that the company retain a sanitation engineer to determine whether their waste water facility can actually support the production load.