Anse Etoile sub-district of Hangar - Minister apprised of environment concerns |01 August 2014

Families living in the sub-district of Hangar in upper Anse Etoile will now have appropriate places to dispose of their domestic waste as bins have been installed in different locations there.

The 16 families have been asking for a solid waste management service for a long time. With no convenient sites to dispose of their rubbish, the inhabitants made an appeal through their elected National Assembly member Melval Dugasse for this situation as well as other environmental issues to be looked into.

The Minister for Environment and Energy Professor Rolph Payet was invited on Friday by MNA Dugasse and district administrator Jenna Dubignon to see for himself the different sites where the bins have been placed as well as other environmental concerns that Hangar is faced with.

Along with officials from his ministry and from the Land Waste Management Agency, Minister Payet toured the different bin sites and assessed other areas where bins could be placed in the future.

As of last week, waste collection firm Star Seychelles has put Hangar on its collective waste roster.
Minister Payet also expressed his satisfaction with a water storage facility built recently by the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) to help supply adequate water to the families  in the area.

However, the minister said he was not satisfied with work done on drainage and some terraces in the area which could lead to disasters in the near future.

With the intention of clearing the way for a road, a huge boulder badly cut was hanging above the road whereas officials on site advised that a brick wall still under construction alongside a terrace is brought down and rebuilt.

All these were brought to the attention of the minister by the MNA.
“There is a lot of potential risk areas here with hill sides being badly cut into to build roads or houses. I will be sending officers from my ministry and from the Ministry of Land Use and Housing to assess the situation so that no disaster zones are created. We have to be careful not to create disaster zones because lots of development will be happening here in the future,” the minister said.

According to MNA Dugasse, apart from the 16 families who already live in Hangar, future development will include 25 land bank projects for housing by government and 40 condominium  units by a private investor.