GIVEN the prevailing condition of the once ‘Garden City’, Georgetown, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is looking to partner with the Guyana Government to call for and oversee a massive restoration exercise.

The matter is set to engage the National Assembly and is being piloted by Shadow Social Services Minister, Volda Lawrence, who has set in motion a Parliamentary Debate on the matter.
The APNU Parliamentarian is looking to have the National Assembly unanimously call on the Guyana Government to firstly “utilise every machinery, work force, and agencies at its disposal and command in conjunction with the City Council, operation ‘Restore Georgetown to the Garden City of the Caribbean.’
The Opposition Parliamentarian is looking to have the National Assembly call on government to undertake the exercise within three months and be done incorporating members of the National Assembly, the business and commercial sector, NGOs, Clubs and citizens in the removal of garbage, abandoned vehicles and builders waste, as well as the de-siltation of canals and alleyways.
Lawrence in the Parliamentary motion is looking also to have the House resolve itself to establish a Committee, consisting of MPs, officials of the Georgetown City Council, Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development and the Ministry of Transport and Hydraulics to monitor the progress of the restoration of Georgetown.
Lawrence wants the body to report to the National Assembly within four months of its establishment.
In her argument in support of the motion, Lawrence contends that the City Council is unable to carry out its mandate, as prescribed in the Municipal and District Councils Act of 1969 and the Local Democratic Organs Act of 1980.
This, she says, is due to “the severe under-collection of taxes, rents and fees as well as the miserly subvention received from Central Government.”
Only recently, Minister within the Ministry of Local Government Mr. Norman Whittaker had pronounced on the matter saying that the City Council receives some $20M in subvention, and that the government, through the Ministries of Local Government and Public Works, has been providing the Council with additional resources to deal with the garbage pile-up in the city.
Lawrence, in the preamble to the imminent debate on the matter, says the expanded boundaries of the city of Georgetown have placed severe strain and pressures on the drainage systems.
She says too, that the heavy siltation of canals, the dumping of refuse and various other kinds of items which block drains, the lack of maintenance of the outfall channels have all led to poor drainage of the city.
The Parliamentarian had said that refuse collection and disposal have reached a critical point where large amounts of garbage are being dumped on street corners, open spaces and canals, creating public nuisance and health hazards.
She also alluded to the fact that there are many construction sites that “continue to block drains and dispose of waste on city parapets and in many instances create stagnant pools of water that encourage the breeding of mosquitoes.”