The Solid Waste Management Corporation (SWMC) celebrates 20 years this Thursday during a special Annual General Assembly at the SWMC conference room in Taylors Range. This month marks the 20th anniversary since the Act for the incorporation of the SWMC was passed. SWMC General Manager Alphonso Bridgewater acknowledged that this year, the 20th anniversary will be one of the focal points of the assembly scheduled for July 7th. “This year 2016 is particularly special because it marks the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the legislation to establish the Solid Waste Management Corporation,” Mr. Bridgewater said.

The assembly will be graced by keynote speaker Dr. Amhad Khan, who is no stranger to the SWMC. “Dr. Amhad Khan is closely associated with the very birth of the Solid Waste Management Corporation in that he was here when his company at the time (in Trinidad) won the bid to be the management of the process to determine which particular company would go through the process of building, design and concept of the sanitary landfill,” Mr. Bridgewater disclosed. Ever since then he has been associated with the organization.” There will also be remarks from the ministers responsible for health Eugene Hamilton and Wendy Phipps.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bridgewater noted that there are some initiatives that will be pursued by the SWMC throughout the course of the upcoming months, which form part of the 20th anniversary commemoration. “We have already been doing a number of things. The fact that we would have already started the human resource development consultancy. That has been finished and we are rolling out some of the recommendations for that,” he disclosed. He also noted that initiatives have been taken to improve the finances and budgetary practices of the corporation. “Every year we provide an audited statements but we do get responses from our auditors that there are areas that we can improve,” Mr. Bridgewater said. This includes having a job description for every position within the SWMC.

The general manager also explained that the last two General Assemblies reflected the operational philosophical principles of the SWMC. “Two years ago the focus of that assembly was ‘Looking Inwards’. Last year the theme was ‘Reaching Outward’ and this year the theme is ‘Projecting Forward.’ When you put all three together you get what we call our operation philosophical principles,” the SWMC General Manager explained.