Rehabilitation works at Le Repentir cemetery have been stalled due to the heavy rains and an assessment will be done to determine the way forward, Assistant City Engineer Kabila Hollingsworth says.
Works at the cemetery have been stalled due to the constant rainfall over the past month, the engineer told Stabroek News. He said that they are currently undertaking an infrastructural assessment as it relates to the drains and the condition of the burial ground.
“What we observed is that the aquatic growth is the biggest hindrance in maintaining the cemetery ground…So what we are doing now is to make a proper assessment of the drainage infrastructure and after then, we will be able to proceed with having infrastructural works completed,” Hollingsworth said.
When the assessment is complete, they will be able to continue with the maintenance of the ground, enhancement of the surroundings and have a proper maintenance plan in place. So far, the Georgetown City Council has received some assistance from persons in the business community to weed and clear a section of the cemetery.
The cemetery has largely been taken over by weeds and high bushes and for July, just over 60 burials were recorded.
“The new plan is to have the eastern half of the cemetery as the new proposed area. We would have submitted a proposed document whereby we are now studying the document to make sure we’re able to look at the things that we didn’t get a chance to look at in the old section,” Hollingsworth said.
He added that among issues that they were not able to address in the current section are drainage, maintenance of the burial beds and access.
In the document, he said, they have made provisions for the use of pesticides, which will give them the ability to control the growth of weeds and bushes on the cemetery grounds as well as in the drains.
Previously, when works were done at the cemetery, it was cleared in its entirety. However, according to Hollingsworth, due to constraints which range from finances to human resources, the city council is unable to currently do so.
“Now [that] we have this document in place, we’re now going to revisit what we would have done, learn from our mistakes and then better it,” he said.
