Dear Editor,
I wish to refer to my letter which was published in Stabroek News on March 3, 2009 (‘Is it permissible to rear pigs in urban areas?’) in which I posed six questions relating to the permissibility of rearing pigs in a residential area for the Minister of Health or the officer in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency to answer.

Unfortunately, the Minister of Health did not answer the questions, and Mr Doorga Persaud, Executive Director of the EPA side-stepped them.

However, in a letter to Stabroek News of March 6, 2009 (‘Pig-rearing in urban areas is a land-use issue which comes under the Central Housing and Planning Authority’), he gave some vital information for the benefit of the majority of the citizens of Guyana, including the fact that,“The Neighbourhood Democratic Council would need to give its ‘no objection’ for anyone to pursue such activity within the jurisdiction of the NDC.”

Also sections of the Environmental Protection Act,  No 11 of 1996 Part V Section 19(1) (a)  were quoted by Mr Persaud in relation to pollution of the atmosphere, and he cited penalties   of not less that  $300,000 or more than $750,000 and imprisonment for one year as being  attached to such activities.

Now that the swine flu has been experienced in the western hemisphere, and in some countries in the eastern hemisphere, I refer back to my letter in which I was fearful of a pig flu coming up. I am now hoping that the Minister of Heath will address my questions in the light of a possible flu pandemic.
Yours faithfully,
Aditnarine  Persaud

Editor’s note
International health authorities have said that the so-called ‘swine’ flu is actually a combination virus, and is transmitted from person to person. On Saturday, Minister Robert Persaud repeated what has been stated by international and local health agencies, namely, that the H1N1 virus, commonly called ‘swine flu,’ cannot be contracted from pigs or by using pork products.