The Gua­napo land­fill was re-opened to­day fol­low­ing safe­ty stand-down meet­ings with staff and con­trac­tors op­er­at­ing on the land­fill. It was closed af­ter a fe­male sal­vager died af­ter be­ing struck by an ex­ca­va­tor buck­et at the land­fill.

Ac­cord­ing to a press re­lease from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Sol­id Waste Man­age­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (SWM­COL) se­cu­ri­ty has been in­creased on-site to curb the unau­tho­rized en­try of sal­vagers to the Gua­napo site in the first in­stance.  

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from SWM­COL: 

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Sol­id Waste Man­age­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed has tak­en ad­di­tion­al mea­sures to en­sure safe­ty at the Land­fills un­der its purview. The Gua­napo Land­fill has re­opened as of 9:00 am to­day fol­low­ing safe­ty stand-down meet­ings with Land­fill Staff and Con­trac­tors op­er­at­ing on the Land­fills. 

SWM­COL has in­creased on-site se­cu­ri­ty to curb the unau­tho­rized en­try of sal­vagers to the Gua­napo site in the first in­stance. Re­gret­tably, this be­came nec­es­sary af­ter a fe­male sal­vager suc­cumbed to in­juries sus­tained when she in­ad­ver­tent­ly came in­to con­tact with the buck­et of an ex­ca­va­tor. The in­ci­dent took place at the Gua­napo Land­fill at ap­prox­i­mate­ly 10.50 am yes­ter­day. 

The Trinidad & To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice has closed in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to this in­ci­dent. SWM­COL re­it­er­ates to users of the na­tion’s land­fills, “Ex­er­cise Cau­tion While on The Premis­es, And to Al­ways Ad­here to Health and Safe­ty Guide­lines.” These in­clude