SANDY BAY, Hanover — The National Water Commission (NWC) and the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC) are considering a $50 million relocation of the sewage ponds at the Tryall housing development at Sandy Bay in Hanover.

Lands at Kenilworth, to the west of Sandy Bay, have been identified as a suitable alternate location for the ponds. A feasibility study is now being conducted.

The relocation, explained Derrick Storer, the parish’s chief public health inspector, could take up to a year.

“If the money is in place, and the whole mechanism is in place, it can take maybe under a year,” he said.

It is anticipated that the proposed relocation would eliminate the long-standing problems of leakage and odour associated with the ponds in their present location.

“It has been conceded by the NHDC and the NWC that the ponds were built too close to the development,” Storer said. “Some of them are leaking and it is not getting enough feed from the development because many of the lots still remain unoccupied and because of that they are not operating efficiently.”

In a recent interview with JIS News Storer contended that until the relocation plans are finalised, temporary steps need to be taken to address the problems at the ponds, which were built about eight years ago — the same time as the Tryall development.

“We at the health department are interested, right now, in getting the problems fixed; and we are looking at the short-term plan,” he said.

The short-term plan, Storer said, should include a maintenance programme for the ponds, to minimise the odour nuisance. This would include:

* cleaning the ponds regularly,

* cleaning the compound,

* making sure that there is a maintenance person on site to skim solids from the ponds,

* and tying in additional sewage from the adjoining Jockey Garment Manufacturing property.

“In the long-term, the NHDC and the NWC can work towards that type of solution (relocation) but we want to see an immediate solution to the existing problem,” Storer added.