Dear Editor,
Much has been said about the uncollected garbage around the city and the unbearable smell that emanates from the rotting waste material ill advisedly stored or buried near the Le Repentir, or dumped in several alleyways around Georgetown. Families living in contiguous areas to the Le Repentir dumpsite and persons passing by the Presidential complex are greeted with an unbearable smell that is unhealthy for all persons and especially for little children. Furthermore, a land breeze, blowing from south to north in that vicinity, makes an early morning walk most uncomfortable. Similarly, the eastern side of Bourda Green/Bourda Market, where piles of waste are haphazardly dumped is already a major disaster, given that fresh and processed food is stored and sold in close proximity to the garbage dump.
Blocked drains and uncut alleyways, styrofoam boxes, plastic bottles, newspapers, cardboard boxes, discarded clothing, aluminium cans and plastic wrapping, among other waste material, have clogged many drains where an assortment of garbage is seen floating in our rivers.
The closure of the Princes Street incinerator some years ago without an alternative furnace and a fleet of reliable trucks and skilled workers has left the city with a garbage disposal system that is capacity constrained as well as poorly managed and under-financed.
Besides, the capacity to store rainwater in Georgetown after a shower has been diminished and this leads to frequent flooding in and around Georgetown.
The parapets close to the seawall and lands beyond the seawall are covered with all sorts of waste material. Visits to the seawall are no longer memorable, but painful experiences, especially on Monday mornings. Visits out of Georgetown to many villages show the same pattern of this manufactured disaster; and the question is not if there will be a health crisis as spoken of by a government minister, but when will it become full blown, given the garbage build-up.
Furthermore, this problem is no longer about which political party in central, regional or local government is to be blamed for the environmental disaster we have; rather, it is about the survival of the city, and every day that passes the problem grows exponentially. In fact, sending our garbage to future generations is an irresponsible act that must not happen.
So what is the solution to fixing Georgetown? There is no one answer and concerned Guyanese need to put their heads together and solve this problem. Here are some suggestions, many of which have been advanced before:
1. Ban styrofoam containers immediately, for they are not biodegradable. Styrofoam will damage the environment for several decades. Cardboard boxes should be used.
2. The city council must have a source of funds that is reliable and continuous over time. Properties should be reassessed to take into account inflation, while differential rates and taxes should be applied to private homes and business places. Many private homes in Georgetown have been converted to business places and they should pay higher rates and taxes to reflect the cost of the services these receive.
3. No less than 75 per cent of the rates and taxes and revenue collected from other city projects must be used directly for cleaning and maintaining the city. The total cost paid for all elected city councillors and the Mayor must be no more than 5 per cent of the total collected in it.
4. There should be a programme to de-silt all canals and outfalls to the Demerara River at least once per year. All gutters and drains in and around Georgetown must be cleaned; parapets must be weeded and roads patched before the wet season begins. The city cleaning records of the 1960s and 1970s should be examined for patterns and understanding and a similar programme built for 2011.
5. Mosquito control and sanitary inspectors should be reintroduced to check on yards and homes and the environment. Less stagnant water in yards will reduce the mosquito infestation problem. Inspectors can monitor this programme with the authority to impose fines.
6. Severe fines must be imposed on persons for placing garbage in the wrong place. More garbage disposal bins should be placed on the street, while special efforts should be mounted to enforce the law on the seawall, especially on Sunday nights.
7. Schoolchildren must be taught and tested in school about maintaining the environment in a clean and healthy state.
8. Garbage must be sorted and disposed of in different ways. Some kinds could be buried, if they are biodegradable. Some kinds of hospital waste should be incinerated. Plastic bottles and containers should be shredded. Shredded plastic bottles have been added to road building materials and this should be explored in Guyana. Part of the tax collected on plastic bottles should be used for paying persons to collect the bottles and another part used to establish a project to shred plastic bottle and containers.
9. Stop dumping garbage in Le Repentir. Le Repentir must be restored and maintained in its appropriate state, for the final resting place of our loved ones must not be a garbage dump. Guyanese need to take a stand against this atrocity.
Yours faithfully,
C Kenrick Hunte
