PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday met with stakeholders at State House to initiate a joint programme between Government and Civil Society to deal with issues affecting the environment and related civil dislocations, consequences, and threat of potential disaster in the country.

President Bharrat Jagdeo and Minister Robert Persaud meeting with stakeholders yesterday at State House in Georgetown. (Cullen Bess-Nelson photo)

Joining him was Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, who has been spearheading Drainage and Irrigation interventions in efforts to mitigate the effects of the unpredictable weather patterns resulting from climate change and its detrimental effects in the various communities of this nation.

President Jagdeo said there is an imperative need for a sustained effort to take care of our surroundings, not just the aesthetic environment, but also our practical environment, and cited clogged-up drains which could complicate situations, as has happened during the preceding few days. 

He opined that the clogging of drainage systems and other deleterious situations are taking place because of avoidable actions, and that solutions require a sustained and “well-thought-out engagement” with people.

Urging the involvement of everyone, the President said this should not just be merely a Government effort, but a joint initiative, particularly with civil society, and even encouraged that this project be led by Civil Society.

President Jagdeo expressed the hope that this approach may effect lasting changes because, in his estimation, the changes that we need are not crafted changes relating to modification of behavioural patterns, such as the cessation of littering, but also more of a cultural change.  He opined that Civil Society can help hugely in that regard.

He informed the relatively large gathering of stakeholders present that he had asked the relevant agencies to focus particularly on the roadsides, which is where people get their first impression of the country, because the Government is pushing the tourism industry.

But he also urged a recognition of a need to go much deeper into the communities with a focus on change of attitudes that will allow us to have the desired effect that we want, not merely on the roadside, but everywhere else.

Derelicts by the roadsides
Referring to the customary Government engagement prior to eventful activities in the country, the President said that efforts are being maintained, and that Government started by removing structures on the roadsides and unsightly signs that were erected without requisite permission from the relevant authorities.  He averred to the big battle to even do that, with persons re-erecting the signs, or new ones being erected in a continuum of defiance of the authorities.

Asserting that these efforts were partially successful, the President said that he recognized that the efforts were “not sustained enough.”

He stated that he drove on the East Coast and saw almost in every village that people are dumping their derelicts by the roadside.  According to the President,  these abandoned vehicles can be traced to an owner.

President Jagdeo reiterated that this proposed initiative is not just about moral suasion and NGO’s working to restructure the cultural dynamics, but it is also about enforcement, where the EPA, the City Council and other agencies that have the authority under various Acts of Parliament and by-laws would have to take stronger enforcement actions.

He urged a combination of various approaches, i.e., a cultural change through talking to people and getting them involved in the project with the hope that others would follow the example, but he also again cited the imperative need for stronger enforcement. 

Expressing the hope that the participants at the stakeholders forum can support the proposed initiative, the President spoke of his disappointment that it is only in times when the country anticipates big events then there is a flurry of activities to address and redress our degraded environment. 

However, he maintained that Government has driven a sustained programme throughout.  President Jagdeo encouraged the group to work way beyond the upcoming ICC 2020 world cup cricket tournament so as to ensure that we have that kind of outcome, where environment-maintenance projects sustain beyond event-related activities.

He then invited comments from Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud and the views of the stakeholders present.

Garbage seized Buxton pump
Minister Persaud thanked the participants for responding at short notice, some even within an hour, which he said clearly demonstrates how seriously they view the situation.  He described as a crisis the way some people dispose of and treat their waste and garbage.

The Minister said that the Ministry of Agriculture is concerned with, not only of having a clean environment, but in the critical situations they face every day in managing the drainage and irrigation systems countrywide.

He stated that mitigating the effects of clogged drainage systems requires much more resources and endangers economic activities, with particular emphasis on agricultural activities, and cited as an example an incident on Friday when, during the heavy downpour, people were indiscriminately throwing waste into the canal, which outflows into the pumps. 

The Minister said that, as a result of such clogging of the drainage systems, one pump became dysfunctional in Buxton because waste material caused seizure of the propeller.  To prevent flooding in the community, with dire social and economic consequences, the relevant authorities had to shut down the pump and mobilize an excavator in order to rectify and salvage the situation.

Focus on Community D&I Programme
He reiterated that indiscriminate disposal of waste matter causes serious problems and disrupts the ability of the relevant agencies to manage the environmental aesthetics and the drainage and irrigation systems in Georgetown and the rural and farming communities.

Minister Persaud alluded to the community D&I programme, which the President had established, especially in the wake of the 2005 floods, which entails working at the local level, in terms of enhancement of the environment while simultaneously providing employment to residents of the various communities. 

He said that Government is now giving that community D&I project much more focus – a specific focus in terms of drainage and ensuring that the internal waterways are cleared to support what Government is doing at the national level.

According to the Minister, for the community D&I project to be successful, the type of Government/Civil Society collaboration being proposed at that forum would be required and is necessary. He opined that the community D&I project can be the point of focus and point of contact.  He endorsed the President’s suggestion that this initiative be led by members of Civil Society.

President Jagdeo informed the stakeholders present that Government has been discussing the environmental issues for a while and has recognized that the clear need is for a long-term engagement which goes beyond picking up garbage. 

He said that it is n
ot about picking up garbage, but about finding solutions, and that, although work has already started at the Government level, there is need for a sustained programme on a long-term basis.

History seems to be repeating itself
In January of 1994, both the Private Sector Commission (PSC), and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) came out in support of Government’s decision to remove the city councilors and appoint an interim body.

An article in the January 9, 1994 edition of the Sunday Chronicle, headlined ‘Business groups support Government City Council solution’, states: “Secretary of the PSC, Mr. David Yankana, in an invited comment, after Government and the Minority People’s National Congress (PNC) traded harsh words on the issue, recalled that the Commission had, in fact, written President Cheddi Jagan, about four months ago, suggesting such a move because of the deterioration of Georgetown.

On 8th January, two private sector firms launched a massive clean-up exercise in some city areas, jointly removing in excess of 1200 tons of garbage.  The two firms were Gafsons Industries and Rambarran Foundation, headed by Messrs Sattaur Gafoor and Jacob Rambarran, respectively.

On Thursday January 14th 1994, in the face of rigid opposition from the three minority parties, Government used its majority in Parliament to push through the Bill to formally dissolve the City Council and provide for an Interim Management Committee (IMC) to be appointed.

At that Sitting, Leader of the House, then Agriculture Minister, Mr. Reepu Daman Persaud, pledged, “We will motivate, inspire, and ensure that the City of Georgetown is brought back to some degree of respectability.”

On January 18, 1994 Government announced that an Interim Management Committee (IMC) had been appointed to manage the affairs of the City Council until Municipal Elections were held. Heading that 15-member Committee was UG Professor, Dr. James Rose. Other members of the Committee were Messrs Fitzgerald Agard, Dennis Beepat, Egbert ‘Bert’ Carter, Ken De Abreu, Winfried Fries, Rocky Mann, Andy Moore, Suresh Narine, Bish Panday, Lloyd Piggot, Beni Sankar, Tony Xavier, Mrs. Sheila George, and Mrs. Leila Ramson.

In the few months that the IMC served the city they achieved a near-miracle and even left the Council bank account in the black, even though they had found it severely in the red.

This unravelled after Hamilton Green became Mayor and, after massive injections of capital to the City Council, with no relief in sight, the Government appointed the Burrowes Commission of Inquiry.  Former Commissioner and current Chairman of the Implementation Committee, Mr. Keith Burrowes, seems to be on a mission to do what Pt. Reepu Daman Persaud swore to do decades ago, to “motivate, inspire, and ensure that the city of Georgetown is brought back to some degree of respectability”, before hurricane Green demolished all those high intentions.

Making Guyana a tourist haven
To a greater or lesser extent, every region has problems with environmental issues.

This initiative by President Jagdeo may at last drive a sustained programme whereby Georgetown could be restored to its former glory days as a Garden City, and Guyana could once more (once the crime situation is addressed as a correlation to this initiative) become the Paradise on Earth that it once was.

The President adjured enforcement of Guyana’s laws by relevant bodies but, while this is an imperative, his recognition and appeal for the culture to be changed is to be noted, because this culture of cleanliness and caring for our community and our neighbours was once a way of life in Guyana.

His Community D&I Project also needs stricter supervision, because persons placed in charge of these projects oftentimes use their positions for personal gain and to carry out vendettas against those with whom they have a grudge.  Many times, also, there is great laxity in carrying out the functions for which they are being paid.  Guyana can of course become a tourist haven, but only if, as President Jagdeo says, the effort is a sustained one.