THE government cannot do it alone. It needs to work in collaborative efforts with the private sector to create joint venture initiatives in restructuring policies and programmes geared towards the reintroduction of the high standards of yesteryear that were once an integral part of the Guyanese consciousness.
Our national poet, Martin Carter wrote: “All are involved, all are consumed” – and consumed we will be if we do not, with celerity, find a common ground where all the forces of this country work together toward the common goal of building this country of ours into a cohesive unit striving toward national prosperity. A case in point is our capital city of Georgetown.
In 1994, a civil society group comprising Bish Panday, Tony Xavier, Beni Sankar, Bert Carter, Sheila George, Leila Ramson, Rocky Mann, Fitz Edwards, Andy Moore, amongst others, formed the Interim Management Committee (IMC), with Dr. James Rose as Chairman.
Within a short duration, Georgetown, which had been wallowing in filth for years, worse than at present, was transformed into, if not a pristine city, then at least a city from which the garbage had been cleared, with systems implemented for the smooth functioning of the council.  That is, a council that was prepared to work with commitment and honesty.
However, that proved to be an unrealistic expectation from the current council, because the city, left once more in the hands of the Georgetown City Council, under Mayor Hamilton Green, has again become a massive dumpsite, despite periodic injections of substantial subventions from Central Government, along with huge revenues collected through normal channels, not least from the expanded vending community, which pays fees on a daily basis.
Recent revelations of misconduct regarding the financial arrangements of the council exposed some of the circuitry and conduits through which the money was siphoned away from works in the city into areas for which it was not intended – areas from which the residents of the city cannot benefit.
The IMC had assumed responsibility of the city with an overdraft of some $38 million.  When it disbanded – within months, the municipality had a credit of $6 million in its bank account.  Mr. Green became Mayor of Georgetown and the rest is history.
Erratic weather patterns are compounded with drainage systems always clogged with non-biodegradable refuse, which exacerbates drainage problems in the city.  There is scant, almost non-existent enforcement of the city’s by-laws that dictate punitive sanctions for litterbugs.  The impact on the nation’s health, and the exchequer, by extension and as a natural progression, could be drastically minimized if the laws governing garbage disposal are enforced.
Many owners of private properties, especially on the East Coast corridor, have dammed the waterways and drainage systems to add more real estate or to conduct business in front of their properties, which compounds the drainage problems of an area historically prone to flooding, especially during high tides and sometimes consequential overtopping of the sea defences.
Unless these waterways are cleared once more to facilitate the free flow of water, as existed previously, there will always be unmanageable flooding on the East Coast of Demerara, despite the supreme efforts, which are highly visible, of the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Drainage and Irrigation Association (NDIA).
Mr. Ramesh Dookhoo, head of the Private Sector Commission, has called for the de-politicisation of the municipality.
The government would obviously welcome a surcease to the unending headache City Hall causes, so someone needs to take a first step toward privatising the municipality, not as an interim measure, but as an antidote to a system that stymies proper management of any entity.