–‘Guyana Shines’ project aims to return Georgetown to Garden City status
THE Solid Waste Management Department of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has undertaken to more frequently remove garbage from schools in the city that are cleared only once per week. Head of that department, Hubert Urlin, so declared at the council’s fortnightly statutory meeting at City Hall last Monday, when the school garbage issue was raised by Councillor Gwendoline Mc Gowan, who named a couple of schools and charged that their garbage drums were over flowing.
“We are speaking about reducing litter, and garbage is not being picked up,” she said.
Urlin stood up to report that the schools in Alberttown and Queenstown were cleared on scheduled days. This is done once a week, he said, but the rapid build-up of garbage is one of the challenges that are constantly plaguing the department.
He said the department was currently working to remove garbage from the schools twice a week, but in the meantime each school should have enough receptacles to hold all of its garbage.
Meanwhile, the diplomatic community in Guyana recently collaborated with civic society partners to launch its ‘Guyana Shines’ project at the St. Margaret’s Primary School on Camp Street, Georgetown.
‘Guyana Shines’ is a recently formed grouping of diplomats and civil society stakeholders involved in environmental work, and seeking to encourage and mobilise Guyanese communities to maintain clean surroundings with the specific intention of returning Georgetown to its glory days when it was known as the ‘Garden City’.
The ‘Guyana Shines’ modus operandi is to reach out to schools and communities in an effort to increase awareness of the harmful effects of littering and pollution, and to encourage individuals to make environmentally-friendly decisions in their own lives and places where they live.
The group is targeting educational institutions because it believes that education is the first step to making changes that could positively impact lives.
The grouping was formed in recognition of ‘Earth Day’, observed in 175 countries on April 22, and aims to increase awareness and appreciation of the Earth’s natural environment.
This year’s theme was ‘Using A Billion Acts of Green to Mobilise the Earth’, and it was in recognition of Earth Day and ‘Mobilise the Earth’.
The United States (U.S.) Embassy, together with the British High Commission, the Canadian High Commission, the European Union Delegation, Conservation International, Environmental Community Health Organisation (ECHO), and Youth Challenge Guyana — all Georgetown-centred organisations – comprise ‘Guyana Shines’.