RATS, FLIES, AND LANDFILLS: USING GIS AND GEOLOGY TO GET RID OF VERMIN ON COLUMBUS' ISLE (SAN SALVADOR ISLAND, BAHAMAS)

In fourteen hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue and in those far off days of yor, he landed on San Salvador (island, Bahamas). Five hundred years later, in 1992 a Club Med opened on San Salvador and one of the unintended results was an island-wide explosion in the rat and fly populations. The Club Med “experience” calls for a big buffet every night., These generate large amounts of organic waste, which, in turn, provides almost unlimited fodder for the rats and flies. At that time, waste was disposed of by dumping it in piles at three or four locations. It was obvious that a properly sited and designed landfill was needed to order to solve the vermin problem. We used GIS to help with this. We first chose a set of criteria that would give us an “ideal” site. On a small carbonate island, such as San Salvador, we knew that it would be difficult to achieve that ideal. However, using the “filtering” capabilities of GIS, we were able to narrow down the choice to five potential locations. One of these, at Polly Hill, was already the site of an existing dump. Its location, while not central, was easily accessible to Club Med and to the island’s population centers. It was geologically and hydrologically favorable, and community leaders found it acceptable. A well-designed landfill was built, waste-generators were required to use it, and it has been operated properly since then. This resulted in the desired fly and rat population “crash”, from numbers that were dangerous to everyone’s health and safety, to numbers that are now barely annoying.