THE SMELL at Mangrove Pond
The once beautiful view is now filled with mountainous piles of garbage that are pushing through the surrounding rocks which barely confine it, while stagnant water and sludge permeate the landfill.
Despite more than ten years and over $20 million spent by Government, residents of the area are still fed up since nothing has changed.
"The smell is really obnoxious so all you can do is shut up the house, but you can still smell it. And we have been smelling it for a long time and nothing has been done," said Daphne Webb, a resident of Arch Hall for over 30 years.
Webb said that the smell was like "stale pig urine".
She added: "One day a neighbour passed by and told me that it smelled like the pigs 'cause I have some in the back. I went out there and checked, but it wasn't my pigs. That's when I realised it was the dump, and I wasn't the only one that realised it."
Her neighbour, Pastor Michael Alleng, said
that the last few days the smell had been affecting his family.
"Last night (Wednesday) the smell was strong, especially on the highway. At night, too, sometimes you get a smokey scent. We had to keep our windows closed.
"The last few months it smelled like something was burning. We called the fire station to do something. Since then it has gone down, but you can still smell the odour," said the pastor.
But the smell and the view weren't the only things about the landfill that were offensive.
Other residents are almost afraid to say the word 'landfill', or complain about the
horrid stench.
"I do not talk about the landfill, I just do not talk about the landfill," said an unidentified resident who refused to comment any further.
But Webb wasn't one of them.
"I would like them to get rid of it. I was trying to get through to the Ministry of Health or the Sanitation, which ever one it was, and I just couldn't get through. This has just been going on for too long, and too long is just too long," said the 73-year-old.