Is it permissible to rear pigs in urban areas?

Dear Editor,

The PPP/C is a very caring government and has been spending millions of dollars to provide health care for its citizens, and even beyond the shores of Guyana it has been very vocal on the subject of climate change, global warming and pollution of the environment.

However, where pigsty nuisance is concerned, I am wondering whether some men are governed by the law of the land while other men govern the law. It would be interesting to have the comments of the Minister of Health, who is a highly qualified person, or the Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency in Guyana on the questions posed hereunder:-

(a) Is it permissible for persons to rear pigs whether in small or large numbers in a residential part of a rural area or in an urban area, and if so what are the health regulations governing such activity?

(b) Are special areas set aside for offensive trades in rural and urban areas? If the answer to this question is in the affirmative, then why are farmers not compelled to utilize those areas?

(c) What are the effects of inhaling pig stench, polluted air and disinfectant on a daily basis? There was recently the bird flu virus overseas, and I do hope there is no pig flu virus coming up.

(d) If a person in a rural or urban area gives an undertaking to clean his pigsty, but does not  dispose of the excrement and only sprays it every hour of the day, will permission be granted for him to rear pigs adjacent to his neighbour’s dwelling house?

(e) Is it not true that as odours rise in the atmosphere, they spread in all directions?

(f) When officers surveyed certain villages from No 52 to 74, Corentyne, Berbice, and created communal reserves east and west of the residential area, was it meant that pigs and man should live in  proximity or for pigs to be in the communal areas?

Yours faithfully,
Aditnarine Persaud

Editor’s note
We are sending a copy of this letter to Executive Director of the Environ-mental Protection Agency, Mr Doorga Persaud, for any comments he might wish to make.