SWMC workers got a chance to relive some of the key memories of one of the major accomplishments of the corporation during the special 20th anniversary edition of the Annual General Meeting at the SWMC headquarters in Taylors in July. Guest speaker was Dr. Ahmad Khan. He was one of the representatives of a consortium seeking to design and build the sanitary landfills in both Nevis and St. Kitts. He is also the Director of the Basel Convention Regional Center for Training and Technology Transfer for the Caribbean Region. He recalled his first meeting with the early employees of the SWMC in 1996. “In 1998 when we had finished the design, we had done our calculations based on what we expected in terms of waste to come in and then Hurricane George passed through. And we had to go back to the design table because we had to deal with more issues with waste management,” he said. He also recalled the hurricane of 1999 than made this even more challenging. “What we ended up doing was by 2002 we would be able to have completed this design, the construction and the finishing of the Low Ground (landfill in Nevis) first and then the Conaree Sanitary Landfill,” he said.

Dr. Khan was not all about reminiscing—he gave the SWMC a charge for the future. For Dr. Khan, there are numerous opportunities to generate entrepreneurial activities from waste management. “(We have to) look at waste as an investment opportunity and to look at recyclables…as opportunities for entrepreneurial activities,” Dr. Khan charged.

He believes that the SWMC can be at the forefront of helping to create an integrated waste management system. This, he noted can be achieved with the public education and awareness campaign through the radio and television programs of the SWMC. “I see the SWMC facilitating this transformation in the next five years, maybe two years and supporting well past the next 20 years. The current initiative undertaken through the SWMC through its radio and television public education and awareness programmes…can now be employed to boost the education awareness at the household level,” he said.