Thanks to J.M. for this one. Keep them coming.
My concern is with the blowing garbage that is polluting our landscape. It seems like such a simple problem with such a simple solution - enclose the dump with a tall fence, just as many solid waste facilities do in other parts of the world. It's not going to keep all of the garbage in but it will keep 99% of what would've ended up on the land or ocean in the dump, where it should be. Many communities already have fence enclosures, but many do not. I'm not exactly sure why - but lack of caring, enthusiasm and motivation at senior levels in the hamlets would be my first guess. Their first rebut would be lack of money... but that's horse shit. In my home community the hamlet actually pays volunteers - yup that's what I said - pays volunteers to clean up garbage in and around the community. The paid volunteer thing, an absolute epidemic, is another topic for another day.
(I'm starting to flush with calm anger)
I have a friend in Pond Inlet who has approached the hamlet in regards to their waste management practices. According to my friend the hamlet has a fairly comprehensive plan, but does not follow it. Not even close. Instead the hamlet, like many others, burns their garbage. Much of the time the smoke blows right through town creating a human safety issue (see a September 21, 2007 letter to Nunatsiaq News titled 'Health survey should measure toxins'). The burning of garbage, this time, is not my beef.
A similarity that occurs across the entirety of Nunavut is that community members can quickly get up in arms about an issue when they feel threatened by a 'southern' entity or action. However, the same issue right here at home is ignored. This territorial government (and some residents) seems to have an affinity for pointing fingers to the demons of the south (or southerners in the north) - the apparent cause of all things negative in the north. See http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2007/10/25/nu-navy.html. Our ex-Environment Minister scolds the federal government for wanting to adopt an open sea waste dumping policy and called on Hon. John Baird, federal Minister of Environment, to take a stronger stance on preventing pollution in northern waters. Yet here at home in many Nunavut hamlets we can't even get fences to curtail our own ocean dumping. It's all lip service.
I want to find a way to get fencing around our community dump, but I'm not a protester. I hate conflict. I'm a follower, not a leader. But this shit drives me to punches - and I'm feeling punchy today.
4 comments:
I won't miss the garbage smoke coming down the hill when I leave.
lol
One good example of how we have "different strokes for different folks" is the very stringent rules the mining companies are forced to follow, out in the middle of nowhere, but right in our own backyards our Hamlets are pretty much given carte-blanche to do as they please.
What's good for those "bad-people" from the south should be good for "Nunavumiut" too!
Great post. I notice too that many communities have fences but they aren't maintained, the garbage just flies through the open holes. It's so ubiquitous you stop noticing it- there are many landscape photos I've taken, only to download them at home and realized "oh- there are a million plastic bags in that meadow of wildflowers".
You had me rolling on the floor with the "paid volunteer" issue.
I dont know where my Hamlet gets the right to spread our garbage all over the landscape of Nunavut in the form of smoke,ask and carbon. Maybe I am missing something, but I can't imagine that a developer would be entitled to inflict its garbage on the land.
Post a Comment