BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PRIME MINISTER of St. Kitts and Nevis the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas has deemed a report, which alleges that his government had held discussions for the sale of 1 000 acres of land for the use of sewage disposal from Dubai, as “crap”.
Dr. Douglas made this pronouncement yesterday (May 14) in response to a caller to his ‘Ask the PM’ radio programme on ZIZ, who had asked about the Cash for Sewage report that is circulating in the Federation.
“Let me stop you before you go any further on this matter. That is absolute nonsense and foolishness! Don’t bring that kind of nonsense on this radio programme please. Not on this programme. That is absolute nonsense, and it’s what you have just described it as.
“I don’t want people to come on this programme with crap, and nonsense and foolishness that they would have read, as been contrived by people here in St. Kitts and Nevis who are angry of the success of this government and want to tarnish the good name and the image of St. Kitts and Nevis,” Dr. Douglas told the caller.
“You see the type of investment that the St. Kitts and Nevis Government, Labour Government has been bringing here…I bring credible investment to St. Kitts and Nevis, not that which you have just described. It is exactly what you said it is, ‘Crap’!” he added.
An email forwarded by Clecton Phillip, who seemingly acts in the capacity of Public Relations Officer for Government Backbenchers Sam Condor and Dr. Timothy Harris, began circulating in the Federation over the weekend.
The email, dated 2.18pm 01May 2013, was sent by one Youssaf Hassan to Phillip via anonymousspeech.com and contains an article purportedly written by the sender, which speaks to the challenges the government faces in Dubai concerning waste disposal.
“Dubai has over 1300k.m of sewage pipeline as a network to the two main sanitation plants, one in Al Awir and Jebel Ali. Some areas of Dubai were not connected to the municipal pipe network and was collected daily by thousands of septic tanks across the city and driven by tankers to the sewage plant. Because of the long queues and delays sometimes for days, some drivers resorted to illegally dumping into storm drains. This resulted into sewage flowing directly into the Persian Gulf near to the city’s prime swimming beaches. Dubai’s municipality committed to catching the culprits and imposed a fine of US$25,000.00 as well as confiscating tankers, which has drastically reduced this illegal dumping,” the article reads.
The article claims that one such private operator, Bash Amed Khan, who is originally from Karachi, Pakistan, disclosed that there is a pressing need to dispose of thousands of pounds of human waste on a daily basis and that “some years ago a US company LEX Consulting L.E.C contacted him with a proposal for a project ‘Cash for Sewage”.
To this end, the article states, Khan had been in discussions with Prime Minster Douglas over the last four to five years and arrangements are nearly finalised for tankers of sewage to be shipped to the island of St. Kitts for disposal.
The article alleges that Khan said some 1000 acres of land is being purchased on the island for the disposal of waste.
Additionally, the article states that “Khan indicated the St. Kitts based Consul to Dubai Miss K. Alex Woodley assured him that plans would be finalised by the end of August 2013”.
Alex Woodley is St. Kitts and Nevis Consul General to the United Arab Emirates and she is said to be the owner of the New York-based firm, Lex Consulting.
Attempts made by this publication to locate Bash Amed Khan and Youssaf Hassan to ascertain the credibility of the article were futile.
