From being once labelled the ‘garden city’, Georgetown has for many years now become the ‘garbage city’ – a most deplorable and  disgraceful situation. In almost every square in Georgetown,  piles of garbage can be seen daily with City Hall seemingly helpless in dealing with this unacceptable scourge that has plagued the city.
It has become clear that City Hall lacks the capacity or the will to find a solution to the city’s garbage woes or both. Consequently, public health is now under threat and there could be an outbreak of diseases which could have serious consequences on the residents of Georgetown.
This grave situation has caused the government to respond with some harsh words and has decided to intervene before the problem gets worse.
The Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) has also said that the garbage problem is the biggest challenge being faced by our tourism industry.
According to Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon, the government has decided to once again provide financial and material resources to help the city avert a crisis, and to organise other efforts to mitigate this unsatisfactory situation.
But, nevertheless, the government has placed the blame for this veritable disaster squarely on the shoulders of inept officials of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC).
This move by the government will be welcomed by most as the garbage situation has indeed become untenable and unbearable.
The recurring excuse given by City Hall for the current problem is a lack of funds which, to some extent, is true. But it is not simply a lack of funds, full stop.  The cause of the problem has more to do with a lack of accountability and poor management and administration by officials at City Hall.
While the government has conceded that the municipality needs more money to manage the garbage and other woes, it has also lashed out at City Hall for its many financial improprieties and rightly so.
According to Dr Luncheon, there was an overwhelming perception, substantiated by reports and audits, that M&CC’s funds are being squandered and are not being accounted for, and this raises the question of whether it makes sense to send good money after bad money.
He stressed that the ‘long and short’ of the matter of funding is that the M&CC has not demonstrated, over time, a resolve to be open, transparent, and accountable.
“Do you pour more money into the black hole that is the M&CC?  Could you conceivably feel that anyone would give them a penny more than they are getting? I wouldn’t give them a blind penny more,” Luncheon declared.
He also recalled that under the Interim Management Committee (IMC) set up prior to the local government elections in 1994, there were no such garbage woes in the city. This is so true and it debunks the notion that a lack of funds, alone, is responsible for the near garbage crisis.
However, while the lion’s share of the blame lies on the shoulders of City Hall, both private and corporate citizens should also shoulder some blame for their attitude towards garbage disposal as many of them simply dump their refuse “willy nilly” where they feel like.
This is further aggravating the already unbearable situation. There have been many announcements in the past and in more recent times about campaigns to stamp out littering, but these have turned out to be mere lip service and so littering has worsened over the years and from all indications will continue to do so.
What is clear is there is need for a long-term solution to the garbage woes in this country, because it is not a problem only restricted to Georgetown, although the problem is the worst in Georgetown. But if we do not address this problem in a comprehensive manner, other areas may reach the level of decay as in Georgetown and that is something we must avoid at all costs.