Cabinet has requested that the Estate Management Development Company (EMBD) temporarily resume sandmining operations at Coco Road in Claton Bay and Windsor Park in California Couva in an effort to address and deal with the shortage of red sand which is affecting the local constructions sector.
Confirmation of the request from Cabinet to deal with the problem has come from chairman of the EMBD Ronnie Shaheed Mohammed who told the T&T Guardian that this will be done under “new terms and conditions including payment to EMBD by volume as opposed to a fixed monthly sum.”
Mohammed said while the EMBD apprecates there is “some urgency” in concluding the matter, there is need to “ensure that this arrangement is commercially viable and ensures a reasonable return on investment.”
In this regard he said the EMBD has been in communication with the operators “to reach a “sustainable and mutually beneficial agreement.”
Local contractors have been complaining for the past few months that the shortage of red sand is having an adverse impact on the local construction sector. Because of the shortage they say the price of a load of sand now costs upwards of five thousand dollars. Red sand is a critical input in the mixing of mortar for the construction of buildings.
Mohammed said while “some relief” can be expected, he was concerned that the sand volumes supplied by the existing contractors are limited.
He explained: “Windsor Park is virtually depleted of reserves of red sand abnd rehabilitation is in progress, while the contractor at the Coco Road Sandpit Ramnarine Charles Persad Quarry Limited (RCPQL) by its own account supplies only 200 cubic yards per day of plastering sand to the public.”
Mohammed said it is therefore “imperative that EMBD controls and restructure this operation to ensure greater productive efficiency moving forward.”
Asked why the EMBD Sandpits are not operational, Mohammed explained that the EMBD is in the process of “regularising its sand mining operations.” This includes receiving all statutory and regulatory approvals including a “mining licence as well as regularising EMBD’s title to the sandpit lands.”
EMBD he said is also in the process of “changing the business model for the operation of these sandpits which includes altering payments being received by the EMBD from a fixed monthly fee to one based on volumes of sand removed from the sandpits.”
The change he said may also involve EMBD “taking over the sale of sand directly to customers.”
To make the changes he said the EMBD now has to establish new operational policies and procedures “to ensure transparency, efficiency and profitability for all sandpits.”
Mohammed said the EMBD has been in daily contact with the Commissioner of State Lands for regularisation of its title to sandpit lands.
As recent as October 3, 2017, Mohammed said the EMBD completed and submitted all the required documents to the Ministry of Energy for consideration by the Mineral Advisory Committee.
He said once EMBD obtains a mining licence and all requirements to operate legally are met, the EMBD will begin sandmining operations in the “shortest possible time.”