The image of Prime Minister Perry Christie standing with his hands in his pockets gazing at a raging fire that had spread from the city dump on Sunday and was threatening nearby homes served as a tragic allegory of the past five years of his administration.
He looked helpless and flat out of ideas.
There was no shortage of politicians on the scene at Jubilee Gardens as residents frantically tried to protect their families and their homes.
FNM Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis showed up in red, seemingly to highlight the FNM's presence at the scene. The party's Tall Pines MP Don Saunders wore a red FNM hat.
It seemed like a cheap, unseemly political move intended to exploit the crisis.
Many of the residents were breathing in the toxic mix that emanated from the dump, a stone's throw away from their homes.
This was not the first time either. They have long been exposed to health hazards from the site, which is also a short drive from the luxury Baha Mar resort, which is scheduled to begin its phased opening in April.
As expected, Christie assured that the government would move swiftly to address once and for all longstanding issues at the New Providence Landfill -- the site of multiple fires over the years.
He told reporters at the scene that the government had a solution.
On Monday, he said there was a "compelling urgency to make a decision that is available to us with a view to bringing in this new level of partnership for the country".
He said the government has been personally involved in talks to find a company to come in urgently to begin remediation efforts at the landfill.
"The tragic circumstance for me was I recently involved myself as prime minister, in the process of selecting a new management company for that entire area and for the more effective management of the site, introducing greater levels of technology and resources," Christie said.
The prime minister advised that the government met with a foreign entity with "great capacity" and also met with a Bahamian group that advanced a foreign partnership.
For the hundreds of residents who live near the dump, and for business people who have also been impacted, there was perhaps little to no comfort in the latest round of promises.
There is no definitive answer on how the fire on Sunday started, but it is the worst that we can remember in our years of covering these blazes at the dump.
Kenred Dorsett, the minister for the environment, said it is believed the fire started as a bush fire and then spread to the dump.
Superintendent Walter Evans, officer in charge of Fire Services, said it is believed it started at the eastern end of the landfill.
Hearing that the fire may have started elsewhere and spread to the dump made no difference to many residents, who have for years appealed to successive governments for help in addressing the issues associated with the dump.
They have heard a lot of talk about remediation.
In 2014, Renward Wells, at the time parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Works, signed a letter of intent with Stellar Waste to Energy to build a $600 million waste-to-energy plant at the site. He was fired for signing the document without authorization.
On Monday, Dorsett said an energy reform task force took the idea off the table when it was considering proposals for the remediation of the dump site three years ago.
Renew Bahamas was then contracted to take over the site, signing an agreement with the government in 2014.
"This is a wonderful day for our country," declared Christie at the official launch of the company's materials recycling facility on May 28, 2015.
"The way to future prosperity is when governments can participate in public-private partnerships such as this one, which means that expenses that were formerly borne by the government fall in the hands of the private sector."
Christie said the government was in the position to save over $6 million annually after divesting its waste management program to Renew Bahamas, whose president was South African Gerhard Beukes.
As is typical with the Christie administration, it hid the Renew Bahamas contract from the public, so it is hard to comment on the specific provisions of the agreement.
Beukes had been optimistic about the future of the company, but by last summer it was clear the company was in serious financial trouble.
Last year, a fire at the site damaged the recycling equipment there.
Renew attempted to renegotiate its management contract for the landfill with the government.
By October it pulled out as manager of the landfill, accusing the government of being unresponsive and unwilling to assist Renew with challenges it had faced.
But in a statement on October 20, Dorsett said, "...it is disingenuous to state that the government has failed to come to the table with Renew to discuss the challenge that it may have had and to chart a path forward and offer solutions and assistance.
"Many of the factors affecting Renew's operations and its performance under the contract are related to management and administrative issues and are not attributable to Hurricane Matthew."
Dorsett advised that the matter was forwarded to the Office of the Attorney General for review of the contractual terms and obligations "given these ongoing challenges".

Out of patience
Since then, the dump has been under the management of the Department of Environmental Health Services (DEHS).
Responding to criticisms of the government's efforts to remediate the challenges at the landfill during its term, including the performance of Renew Bahamas, Dorsett said on Monday that it was a pilot project and notwithstanding Renew's financial difficulties, the project was successful.
On Monday, the prime minister stressed the need for his government to introduce a company to manage the landfill in order to prevent any further devastating fires. He said the government is very close to choosing a company to run the site.
For sure, the problem with the dump is a legacy issue.
In 1999, the Inter-American Development Bank and the government signed a loan -- $23.5 million from the bank, $10 million from the government -- for the Solid Waste Management Program to be executed by the Department of Environmental Health.
The loan included priority investments of $21 million for disposal facilities at New Providence and 10 of the Family Islands; $600,000 for hazardous waste disposal; $800,000 for institutional support of DEHS and studies; and $600,000 for an environmental health education and awareness program.
Minnis, the former minister of health, acknowledged on Monday that the administration of which he was a part had to share in the blame for the problems at the landfill.
"... Certain funding would've been not only for New Providence, but would've been to tackle the entire Family Islands in terms of dealing with how to deal with garbage collection," Minnis said.
"I would be the first to admit that I am not happy with how it was dealt with.
"I can admit that and we still have the issues, so we have to deal with it appropriately and have more accountability moving forward.
"I mean both (governments). The problem is still not resolved."
While Minnis pledged to bring an end to fires at the city dump, he could not explain exactly how he would achieve this, but he did speak to the need for the proper separation of and disposal of waste.
The government now talks about the urgency of getting the problem in hand, but it has given little focus to any education program to deal with the broader issue of proper disposal of waste.
When he contributed to debate on the budget last June, Dorsett advised Parliament that the Department of Environmental Health Services was continuing an education program, which he said would be expanded so that all communities in the country would receive relevant information regarding waste management.
We have not heard much about it since.
With the clock ticking on this administration's time in office, it is unclear whether any real movement will be made before the election on addressing the longstanding issues at the landfill.
Residents, meanwhile, have run out of patience -- especially those who were forced from their homes on Sunday by thick plumes of smoke, and who fought off the fire as it encroached on their properties.
Many are tired of hearing that a solution is in sight.
On that score, as on other issues, they have stopped believing their government.

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