– two-week environmentally friendly sanitation campaign started in ‘Tiger Bay’
THE Mayor and City Council (M&CC) will be utilising several methods  to rid Georgetown of garbage, as the municipal sanitation exercise intensifies.
M&CC workers started operations, at 10:00 hrs yesterday, along Hope Street in ‘Tiger Bay’, clearing heaps of garbage  and other debris from the parapets and thoroughfare. City Hall Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr. Royston King said, for the undertaking, an inter-departmental approach has been adopted, utilising resources from several units of the municipality, among them the City Constabulary, Public Health and Solid Waste departments.
“We are pooling our resources to complete this project, which will be done over the next two weeks,” he said.
King said residents were very cooperative and assisted the M&CC employees as they proceeded to clean the area.
“We are very grateful for their cooperation and will continue to tackle one  community at a time, to upgrade it to an environmentally friendly one,” he assured.
In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, King revealed that the action will continue in certain sections of North and South Cummingsburg.
“The boundaries of the sanitation programme are Lamaha Street, Church Street, Main Street and Water Street,” he informed.
About the scope of the works, King said they would account for drainage improvements, desilting of alleyways and street drains and removal of structures erected over the last.
“With this particular process, what we are doing is upgrading those communities bounded by the limits to a position that would make them environmentally friendly and, at the same time, secure their public health  integrity,” he explained.

REARING ANIMALS
King said an inspection, by technical officers last week, revealed that persons are rearing animals in makeshift pens over the Council’s drains and pavements, a practice which is completely unacceptable and will have to be stopped.
He said consultations were held with the residents in the targeted areas, in an effort to inform them of the campaign and allow them to have an input.
“We wanted to let them know what was going on and invite them to give  us feedback on how it can be done in a manner which is acceptable to everyone,” King stated.
He said heavy drainage operations will also start in the identified locations and the M&CC would be providing residents with garbage bins and  embarking on an aggressive education awareness talk series about public  health and proper waste disposal.
King said the project will last for two weeks, after which time attention will shift to another section of the capital to continue the upgrading.
He expressed concern over the flagrant disregard of the anti-littering laws, especially by vendors who operate in the vicinity of Stabroek Market and called for public cooperation to tackle the problem.
“Look at the Stabroek Market and the amount  of garbage that has accumunlated under the makeshift stalls in the area where  people are selling all the time. This is unacceptable,” King declared, adding:“Everybody has a responsibility to dispose of their garbage in a responsible manner.”
Asked about the effectiveness of the drive, he reported that there has been moderate success but admitted that much more needs to be done, as gargabe continues to accumulate in the city.

NATIONAL CHALLENGE
As a result, King emphasised that the question of littering has now become a national challenge and the M&CC, alone, is not equipped with the resources to cope with it.
“We need the cooperation of everybody, including all agencies and organisations, because the Council is responsible for a wide range of services and is operating on a narrow revenue base. Citizens need to understand that, if they do their bit, then we will be able to solve the problem,” he posited.
King said the absence of an adequate number of bins around the city should not be used as an excuse to litter.
“If persons do not  have a bin in their yard, I am sure they will not throw refuse on the floors of their homes,” he remarked.
Meanwhile, King appealed to citizens to see it as a personal responsibility and to act accordingly in order to solve the national problem.