GEORGETOWN Mayor Hamilton Green on Wednesday pointed out that flooding in the City has been significantly reduced due to the fact that the staff at the municipality ‘has done their work’ in preparing for the current rainy season. The mayor told the Guyana Chronicle that despite the heavy rainfall over the past few days, there has been no flooding. This, he said, has resulted in two television stations offering commendation to the Council for the works done.
The Mayor said flooding will only occur if people continue littering their environment and expressed concern that the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) is often criticised when it falls short but is not given adequate commendation when it is deserved.
Recently at a health fair that was organised by the M&CC, Councillor Patricia Chase-Green, who chaired the proceedings, said the initiative was just one way of mobilising actions for change in the context of littering.
She had mentioned that this issue concerns not just the government or the M&CC but everyone and she observed that when people litter, it puts more burden on the Public Health Department.
Chase-Green also mentioned that littering is largely responsible for flooding in certain parts of the capital. “We (the Council) are only recognised as garbage cleaners but did not throw the garbage there,” Chase-Green maintained.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud recently said at a press conference that with flooding likely to result from the May/June rains, citizens need to dispose of waste in a proper manner.
The minister lamented that the country has lost the war on garbage and proper waste disposal and noted that despite the increase of fines for defaulters and the amendment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Act, among other things, the situation remains the same.
“It’s unbelievable what people throw into the canals. At one time, I saw an entire car there,” he said, remarking that the type of “poor and unbecoming” behaviour by citizens creates havoc and reflects bad manners, as well as a lack of concern for the environment.
Persaud remarked that it is not a case where there is an absence of regulations and said it has more to do with proper enforcement.
As a result, the Agriculture Ministry has invited a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other agencies join in dealing with the issue. “We need to have a rethink of our strategies. It’s about creating a clean environment,” he maintained.
The Minister said it is written somewhere in the scriptures that “cleanliness is next to Godliness” and the religious community also has a role to play in encouraging citizens not to litter.
Meanwhile, as intense preparations continue for the rainy season, the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), under the Ministry of Agriculture, has embarked on a number of interventions to support the Georgetown Mayor & City Council (M&CC).
As part of a wider plan, the undertakings will include the dredging of various outfall channels countrywide, which, due to the prolonged dry period, were clogged with silt.
The Government Information Agency (GINA) reported that the excavations would allow a more intense gravity flow with greater hydraulic efficiency through the sluices, resulting in the discharge of larger volumes of water at low tides.
A pontoon and an excavator have since been provided by the NDIA to carry out the critical works, while the M&CC has provided an additional excavator to assist with the desilting.
Dredging has since begun at the Cowan Street outfall, after which the Kingston outfall, also in that city ward, will be done.
In addition, major work has begun to clean and clear key drainage structures and canals, parapets, weed bushes along and around canals and clearing of critical drains and trenches citywide, through the NDIA’s Community Drainage and Irrigation Project.
The NDIA, in the past, has always been supportive of the M&CC and has deployed mobile drainage pumps to various sites, apart from the excavation of drainage canals in various areas.
The NDIA is urging communities to desist from dumping garbage into drains and trenches because the practice could lead to blockage and result in flooding, GINA said.