The Bahamas will have to build an island to handle its rubbish or barge it elsewhere for disposal if it doesn't change its ways, the Environment Minister has warned explaining the need privatization for the waste handling business.

Speaking to The Nassau Guardian, Dr Earl Deveaux said it was imperative that professional management was brought in now to avert a crisis which could cost the nation more in the long run and be forced into extreme measures such as Singapore's man-made island to handle its waste.

He was speaking against a backdrop of a two-pronged privatization approach to the situation, firstly proposing to bring in Miami-based Cambridge Development Company to run the Tonique Williams Darling Highway landfill site, and handing domestic waste collection over to private Bahamian companies.

They will charge residents around $12 to $18 a month to dispose of the rubbish. Dr Deveaux said: "If we do not manage space adequately New Providence today doesn't have a site that is suitable. We'd have to look at doing what Singapore has done which is to build an island to handle waste, and think of the cost of that. Or we will have to think about barging the waste to somewhere else.

"Whatever we do we have to treat out waste more responsibly, more efficiently and cheaply." He said the government wanted Cambridge to take over the running of the landfill by July 1. To do this it will invest $20 million in new facilities and equipment, and a new company will be formed called Sustainable Bahamas Ltd 40 percent of which would be offered to employees, the public and institutional investors.

The handing over of residential waste to private contractors is expected to take six months to work out detailed schedules and costs.

Click here to read more in The Nassau Guardian