THE Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development recently convened a meeting with the Georgetown City Council, the private sector, Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) to collectively discuss the way forward with regard to the garbage situation in the City.

At this meeting, a number of suggestions were made to the Council, including that it should give up the groups for which it was responsible. These include: Groups 7 and 8, while the other eight groups are contracted out to Puran Brothers and Cevon’s Waste Management.
The suggestion was made that the Council should instead focus on the markets and public spaces and try to recoup rates that are owed to them.
“The Council cannot continue to sit in a building and just wait for people to come to them. They should have outreach exercises which would see the 30 councillors who have paid themselves huge increases in Council fees without the required approval, going out into the various wards to meet with people…to discuss with them payment schedules and plans,” Minister within the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, Norman Whittaker said during a press conference yesterday at the ministry in Kingston.
At present, the Council only recoups about 50 percent and instead, is milking the market revenue to take care of other areas.
Recently, the ministry spearheaded a cleanup exercise which saw the Ministries of Health, Natural Resources and the Environment, Public Works, Agriculture and Tourism, coming onboard.
The Council too was involved; it provided a compactor truck, which the ministry assisted to make operational after it was down for several weeks.
Mention was also made of the group of persons who are alleging that the Council owes them $14M for solid waste services that they would have provided.
The two Ministers, Ganga Persaud and Whittaker, met with these persons and after follow-up discussions at the level of the municipality, it was determined that these individuals were contracted, but there is no evidence of the contractual arrangement between them and the Council.
Nevertheless, the ministry is working with the Council and the persons to try to arrive at some satisfactory conclusion to this matter.

Haags Bosch
With regard to the construction works that are taking place at the Haags Bosch Landfill site, Minister Whittaker said they are about 65 percent completed. There have been some challenges and the ministry has been continuously engaging the contractor, BK. International, in addressing these obstacles.
Meanwhile, works on the expansion of cell-1 is progressing and the ministry has been looking at ways through which it can increase compaction density of the cell to ensure a lifespan of 7-10 years.
Additionally, there will be some adjustments to the opening and closing hours of the landfill site. This adjustment will not see the hours being extended as requested by some, as this would have serious cost implications.
At present, the landfill operates from 07:00hrs to 17:00hrs and the adjustment will see this changing to 08:00hrs to 18:00hrs.