OVER the last few days, several complaints were made in respect of the piles of debris being left on parapets as a result of the cleanup exercises. 

The Monitoring Unit yesterday conducted inspections in the areas where work is in progress. In Albouystown, the contractor stated that the piles of debris which were placed on the Independence Boulevard’s parapet are from the market. He stated that it was difficult to clean the market during the day since vendors carry out their trade at that time; as a result, work was carried out during the nights and in many cases until 03:00hrs. Moreover, silt and debris were transported to the Boulevard for temporary holding. He also pointed out that some residents have requested the use of some of the silt to landscape their yards.
As of August 17, the piles of debris were removed from Independence Boulevard. Currently, work is ongoing and there is some mess since there has been days of heavy rain fall.
In West Ruimveldt, work is ongoing and the contractor has been removing debris from the areas and transporting them to Haags Boosh Landfill in Eccles, East Bank Demerara.
The contractors also elaborated on a few uncontrollable challenges which they have been encountering during the cleanup exercise. One being very limited holding areas, if any at all, in the city, hence this is a major inconvenience to both residents and contractors. Two, the difficulty they will encounter if they try to remove the silt immediately after it is excavated from the drains because of the excess water it carries. And three, the impact of the high tide which goes back further each day. Once the tide is high, the drains cannot be de-silted; consequently, the workers will programme some of their activities according to the tide schedule. It therefore means that work will extend into the nights and the Haags Boosh solid waste disposal site closes at 16:00hrs.
The Programme Implementation Committee is working with the community contractors to maneuver around the uncontrollable elements in order to remove the remaining debris as quickly as possible. The committee apologises to the residents within the affected areas for the inconvenience the activities are causing, and assures the members that the team is working assiduously with the community contractors to remove the debris. (Programme Implementation Committee Clean-Up My Country release)