Dear Editor,
Some time ago I wrote a letter about tons of garbage that’s piled up in a street opposite the Mon Repos Primary School, that was a health hazard to over one thousand students and citizens who walked that road daily. Nothing was done by the NDC, the sanitary people nor the police to deal with citizens and store owners who dumped their garbage near the roadway. It amounted into tons of garbage that harboured flies, bugs and even snakes.
I was flabbergasted yesterday when I heard that a PPP political rally was going to be held near the garbage dump at Shadir’s Square. I suddenly visited the area and saw lots of trucks and bobcats as well as men on the ground moving out the garbage until 5 pm. Why did they become active so suddenly to move garbage after many years? No one took heed of my letter, but because the President and other dignitaries were coming to a meeting the incompetent NDC and sleeping political bureaucrats awoke from their sleep like Rip Van Winkle to clean tons of garbage.
Real leadership is about proper administration in every area in the nation, but we always see our system of administration messed up from the top to the bottom. Why did the administrators have to wait until the President was visiting a smelly area to make it clean? Why is it the sanitary inspectors and police officers who walked past and drove in that area daily never arrested residents who dumped garbage by the roadside? Why did no one take heed of my letter from the very inception.
The bad policies and archaic political ideologies in this country call bad people good and good people bad. It’s because they have too many unsuitable officials in high office to administer villages, towns and regions when they cannot govern their own lives properly. Now that they have removed the garbage dump near the road that’s leading to the Mon-Repos Primary School the question is whether they can maintain a clean healthy environment. Will they allow residents and shop owners to dump garbage again in that area to make it into a worse dumpsite? Who is responsible for the sanitary situation in this community? Where are the sanitary inspectors and the NDC administrators? We must enforce the laws for littering or the situation will get worse. In this modern age Guyana is the worst country in the world when it comes to dumping garbage. Our beaches and sea wall stink. All over stinks. How do we deal with the filth in our environment if we have irresponsible people in administration?
In Agriculture Road, where I live, I see the same thing happening. When the Minister of Agriculture visits the Agriculture School, it’s then the administrators will try to fix the potholes in the road and clean the environment. No wonder we have so many accidents. Agriculture Road is built in a twisted format; then the road has lots of potholes which are getting bigger daily and no one is fixing them. Half the road is hard and half is very soft and fragile. It looks like a deep pond on one side when driving, while the other half looks like a bad highway to hell. I sometimes wonder if the Minister of Works has inspectors who will inspect and pass these bad roadworks by bad contractors. But why are they paying contractors money for horrible jobs?
Just about 14 months ago I saw a road built in Block 8, Mon Repos where I have my church. I noted with interest the contractor built just about 3.5 roads but left out half of a main road and then was going away. When I asked the workers why they were going, they said they would come back. They built half a road through the Rice Station bridge up to my church and left it. They came back after 6 months, just near the time for elections, and joined the halfway road from my church going down to the next street where they built a piece more and left. The first piece of road they built up to my church is a flat, thin, inferior road, but the next piece they joined it to is a bit higher and stronger and was ‘capped.’ Now we have one road split into two halves, with one part flat and low and the other part high. The first flat piece has no ‘cap’ and has sunk already. Then we will read in the press millions were spent to rehabilitate roads in Block 8 Mon Repos. To my observation the deplorable job the contractor did could never cost one million dollars. But who is responsible for all this negligence and the incompetent roadworks?
It’s time we rise from our slumber and see a better environment with more responsible citizens and law-makers. Wrongdoing is gradually taking over this nation with corrupt officials who just waste taxpayers’ money by hiring incompetent contractors to do horrible jobs in our communities. It’s time we rise to demand what is right for us. If we can’t clean our environment and build a good road then how is it possible for us to govern this nation? I have seen the half educated rise to power but power into the hands of the blind is more foolishness. While all political parties are fighting to rule I must pause to ask them: What is your new political ideology and vision to take this nation into the modern age? A nation free from crime, corruption, garbage and drug dealers. Guyana is a nation too young to die.
Yours faithfully,
Rev Gideon Cecil
