“Think of this: You in a deep sleep, curl up, dreaming all kinda story and then ‘bloosh,’ water splashing like mad on you. Is dem thing these people deh pon everyday iya,” a homeless man, who asks to be called only ‘Dougla,’ says.
He is one of the homeless persons who have removed from the downtown pavements surrounding the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC), the Fogarty’s Department Store and the Hand-in-Hand Insurance Company, where water is being rained down on them by sprinkler systems.
“I moved because dem is mek you feel like you ain’t get feelings, like you ain’t human. Honest. They treat you like animal and I don’t even think animals, ’cause you is protect yuh animals nah? Out here is nuff, nuff stress and I can’t deal wid duh because nobody never even come to ask we a day yet why we living out here,” he says.
During a visit to the Robbstown area early yesterday morning, Stabroek News observed the overhead sprinklers, which are activated internally and deliver watery wake-up calls on a daily basis to the many homeless persons who sleep in their vicinity.
GPOC says it is one of their security measures to ensure the vagrants do not return, especially during busy working hours, while Forgarty’s said it is intended to clean the pavement area of the rancid odour caused by the pavement dwellers.
Stabroek News contacted the Hand-in-Hand Insurance Company but was told that the person who was authorised to speak on why the sprinkler system was installed, Winston George, was not available but would return a call. Up to press time, George had not called.
Humiliation
None of the vagrants wanted to give their whole names and some were fearful that they were being interviewed by the police. Even the very vocal Dougla did not want his face to be photographed as he believed that people “all over the world” would see him on the internet and TV and “judge” him for the life he has chosen.
He spoke for most of the vagrants, who would nudge him to remind him whenever he
