The M&CC and the local government ministry should clean the city; businesspeople and others should join the call for local government elections

Dear Editor,

Another year will soon be gone and Guyanese are still left with the burdens of immorality, lawlessness, clogged drains, vagrants, junkies, flooding and tons of garbage in the once-upon-a- time Garden City of Georgetown and across the land of many waters. The extent of our indecency has reached so high that every moment of the day someone can be seen either defecating or urinating publicly.

Over the past decade this situation has been nurtured by prominent individuals whose objectives are politically aligned and for self-advancement while property owners, businessmen and businesswomen, and conscious minded persons strive to curb this appalling reality by expending billions of dollars, time and energy. We all have travelled overseas and I have personally visited numerous cities in all of the continents of this world; however it is unfortunate for me to classify Georgetown, Guyana, South America as the most awful of all, a city which was once-upon-a-time the ‘Pride of the Caribbean.’
In this struggle, we must acknowledge and be very thankful to Ambassador of the United States of America Brent Hardt for initiating and sustaining the ‘Pick It Up Campaign‘ in an effort to return Georgetown, Guyana to its once-upon-a-time state of pride.  I urge each Guyanese to support this initiative.

Nevertheless, each year property owners and business establishments are forced to remit to City Hall large sums of money in dues, rates and taxes, while most of us never witness our garbage or drains being cleared by employees of City Hall. Instead, we would only hear of millions of dollars in budgetary shortfall, employees‘ strikes and the nonpayment of salaries, accusations of corruption and the demand for more government subventions.

The time has come for property owners, businessmen and businesswomen, and conscious minded persons to join in the call for local government elections and endeavour to put in office and authority persons whose intention and objectives are focused on accountability, justice, real development of a city and improving the sanitation in Georgetown.

Additionally, I am appealing for an immediate response from the Mayor and City Councillors and the Ministry of Local Government for the removal of garbage, coconut shells and filth which continue to be dumped along Lombard, Bugle Street, Werk-en-Rust, (behind the former GNCB Bank building) and the de-silting of sand and mud from the drains along Lombard Street, Werk-en-Rust, and Georgetown at large.

This area along with the entire city continues to be flooded with the minimum amount of rainfall, thus causing great inconvenience, loss of business, chaos and confusion to entrepreneurs, pedestrians, and schoolchildren, and the shutting down of schools and government ministries and agencies.

I have made endless phone calls and sent countless letters since 2005 on this escalating situation and continue to appeal for a sustainable mechanism to be implemented to curb this heinous act of the coconut vendors, their helpers and staff from the Cleansing Department of City Hall.

Unfortunately, as of this date very little is being done. In the interim many business owners and residents of Guyana continue to bear the burdensome expense of maintaining a state of cleanliness around their respective environments while we continue to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in dues, rates and taxes to City Hall.

I reiterate my appeal to the Mayor and City Councillors of Georgetown and the Ministry of Local Government to be accountable to taxpayers, exercise justice and clean the areas as emphasized above while implementing an effective, sustainable and efficient way to deal with the coconut vendors and the villains who continue to violate the laws of Guyana and desecrate the Garden City of Georgetown.

Yours faithfully,
Nazar Mohamed
Managing Director
Mohamed’s Enterprise