(This is the second instalment in a series on local government in anticipation of the municipal and local government elections which are supposed to be held before the end of the year.)
Ask anyone what the duties of a Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) are and they will give you a list which includes collecting garbage but in Industry/Plaisance the Council doesn’t collect solid waste.
According to Chairman Rodwell Lewis there simply is not enough money for that service especially since the rates paid by residents have remained constant for more than two decades.
“When I entered office the NDC owed Cevons Waste Management approximately $8 million. It was simple mathematics. Each time a bin is emptied we paid the company $300 and they collected twice per month. So it was $600 per month per household equaling $7200 per household each year when residential rates are $5,700 per year. The rates and taxes doesn’t reach the cost, that’s why we are in the red. Presently we are not offering that service to residents,” he explained.
Lewis noted that through prudent management of its resources the Council has been able to settle the majority of its debt over the last two years and now owes Cevons just over $500,000.
In 2020 the total rates collected was just about $12 million, a collection rate of 65%. These sums were able to cover salaries of council staff, reduce the council’s debt and help in the rehabilitation of a new office for the Chair who relocated to the ground floor of the council compound in a bid to better serve elderly residents.
“Most of the individuals visiting this office are senior citizens so when I took office the Chairman’s office was upstairs and I took into consideration the difficulty of climbing the stairs,” the chair explained. Also built was a sanitary block for the council compound.
That list of services is also likely to include the clearing and maintenance of drains. Does the Council provide that service? Yes, but through the Community Infrastructure Improvement Project (CIIP) a central government funded programme.
Both Lewis and residents assure Stabroek News that the CIIP workers clear the drains regularly even if it is not immediately visible.
During our visit to the communities which make up the NDC the lack of garbage collection is glaringly obvious and the drains are overgrown. It is hard to believe that they are regularly maintained. In this way the community does not look that much different than how it did in 2018 when the council regularly collected garbage and cleaned drains.
At that time Stabroek News reported that one visit saw the reporter arriving just minutes after the garbage contractor had visited only to observe residents burning garbage. Along one street the newly emptied garbage receptacles were juxtaposed against a background of garbage mounds and grey smoke emanating from a recently lit garbage fire.
The adjacent drain was littered with household refuse even though residents stated that it had been cleaned less than two weeks previously.
Same complaints
Three years later residents also have the same complaints. They appear undisturbed by the lack of garbage collection seemingly content to pay the private collectors but they can’t abide the conditions of the roads and bridges which they say are deplorable.
Joseph Haynes, describes his street Ramos Street as the most deplorable.
“The most potholes. Nothing but potholes for years. It always bad,” he stressed adding that he has repeatedly complained to the Council to no avail.
Lewis however tells this newspaper that in lieu of its $4 million subvention the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development provided the NDC with solar powered street lights and crusher run to patch selected roads.
One of the roads selected was Ramos Street in Plaisance. The others were Ogle Old Road and Cemetery Road in Industry.
“We had no part to play in how that money was spent as the Ministry decided that the sums would be used for the purchase of solar street lights and crusher run to resurface roads in the community. We did not execute those projects and nothing was provided to the council for them to sign off on the quality of work. The crusher run was dumped and the NDC had to stand the cost to spread it,” he explained.
Lewis stressed that the issue was raised by him and the Chairs of several other NDCs at the Regional caucus but nothing resulted from their complaint.
In the meantime, he is facing what he describes as a significant challenge closer to home.
According to the Chairman, the Council’s environmental officers have been less than diligent in making sure residents adhere to the building codes resulting in several illegal constructions across communities.
Stabroek News had previously reported that a cease order was issued for an ongoing construction in Industry after intervention from the Minister of Local Government, Nigel Dharamlall.
Lewis explained that the Minister brought to his attention the construction noting that the resident might not be the legal owner of the property and a cease order was issued.
He lamented that within the NDC there exist lots of illegal constructions while environmental officers cite the COVID pandemic as justification for their failure to locate these breaches.
He went on to claim that in one instance a legal case instituted against an illegally constructed business was discharged by the Court because an environmental officer did not show up to testify.
