Director of Solid Waste Management for the Georgetown city council Walter Narine yesterday said that a second of the city’s four garbage trucks is back in operation.
This means that residents who went days without collection can now have some relief as the weekend will find workers “mopping up” the mess now present in some city wards.
According to Narine, the near shut down of the collection service was as a result of the trucks being operated continuously without servicing.
“We missed the schedule by two to three days. Each truck had a different problem and it was just unfortunate that all went down at the same time,” he said, while explaining that the source of the issues is the leachate from garbage, which has been getting into the trucks’ hydraulic and other systems.
“The trucks have to be regularly washed and oiled, just like any other vehicle. If you don’t look at them regularly, they will deteriorate,” he added.
While Narine has been struggling to keep his fleet on the road, residents of several areas, including Queenstown, Kitty and Campbellville, have been enduring overflowing garbage. When Stabroek News visited these areas it was clear that the receptacles, which were all overflowing, had been on the parapets for several days.
Narine is promising to do his best to prevent this from happening again. He noted that from the new week, every Wednesday will find the city’s trucks being serviced. “Wednes-day has a light schedule, so we will ask the contractor to work and our trucks will be serviced,” he said.
He also explained that his department is pushing to have eight garbage trucks so that they can provide a complete service to the city without the help of contractors.
“I have asked for two in my 2018 budget and it was approved. I am also hoping to use the government subvention ($24 million) to get one to take it to seven. The Ministry [of Communities] asked for a work plan explaining how the subvention will be used and I am hoping council will approve my proposal,” Narine shared.
According to him, with eight trucks, the city will be able to use each truck for two shifts per day and have rotating off days for servicing. The Director is also hoping to “do away” with group clearance- there are presently 10 groups- and have garbage collection follow the constituency boundaries established instead.
