I WAS extremely pleased and happy when, as I made the turn at the head of Sheriff Street, towards the East Coast of Demerara, I saw the huge billboard saying ‘Pick it Up’ and which sends the message to keep Guyana clean.
This is long overdue and I think this move to promote this type of message and create awareness of this (garbage and littering scourge) will soon bear fruit. I usually focus on the various news on our local channels, and over the past week I noticed various groups of persons, both local and international, actually picking up garbage and putting it in garbage bags supporting this initiative – Pick it Up. I am convinced that this level of awareness will create a positive impact and that the generation of the day will soon adopt the principle of taking care of their environment by being responsible for their garbage.

Also, those civic-minded Guyanese who have already supported this initiative should not wait on any individual to tell them to share the message and educate those who are not yet aware of the importance of their environment and how garbage can destroy it in a very short time.
The initiative should not be kept on billboards and short television ads.

It needs to be on the ground and should be a continuous programme. I therefore wish to advise the implementers to move to the school network, religious groups, social groups, other governmental agencies, private sector business among the many other groups we have in our country today and let the message be broadcasted in every direction utilising proactive needs assessment of the respective groups and working towards achieving these needs.

I want to live to see the day when, after the big sea- wall lime on Sundays, which is now a Georgetown culture, that on Monday morning all the garbage will be in the bins rather than all over the ground; that school children will look for the garbage bins instead of dropping it; that our streets in the city will be clean instead of coated with plastics and Styrofoam.
And I just wish to live to see a clean and beautiful Guyana as it used to be.