FOLLOWING a decision about one week ago at a multi-stakeholder meeting, four sub-committees have been established for the restoration of the City of Georgetown as a result of an amended motion approved by the National Assembly during its March 14th sitting.

The meeting was held in the boardroom of the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development.  The newly formed committees are the Resource Mobilisation Sub-Committee, Technical Sub-Committee, Solid Waste Management Sub-Committee and the Public Awareness Sub-Committee.
The chairpersons are Minister Norman Whittaker for the Resource Mobilisation Sub-Committee; Volda Lawrence M.P. for the Technical Sub-Committee; Joseph Harmon M.P. for the Solid Waste Management Sub-Committee and Kit Nascimento for the Public Awareness Sub-Committee.
Additionally, draft technical operating reports will be presented by the respective chairpersons.   Committee members who were nominated in absenteeism were notified by the persons who selected them.
As reported earlier, the meeting was attended by several government ministers and representatives of several sector ministries, opposition members of parliament, mayor and city council officials, and representatives of the private sector.
During the meeting, there were remarks and suggestions by Minister within the Local Government Ministry, Norman Whittaker, Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn, Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Robert Persaud and Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, followed by a comprehensive  discussion.

Major concerns
Some of the major concerns raised were whether a plan on the subject matter of solid waste management and related matters such as drainage existed for the Georgetown Municipality, and if so, what areas were not being addressed; the extent of the public’s involvement in the implementation of the plan; a major clean-up of Georgetown; issues of compaction; payment of tipping fees; recycling of some waste; and issue of governance.
Additionally, there were suggestions and recommendations dealing with the restoration being extended beyond garbage collection, illegal construction on reserve lands, the breach of building codes, illegal roadside vending, and the issue of kokers and sluices.
It was also decided that in the plans being, made there must be an effective and thorough public education programme and the restoration should not be seen as just a technical exercise.
In addition, critical areas of the restoration programme need to be identified and categorized, and stakeholders need to be placed in respective sub-committees, with each sub-committee comprising experts as well as non-technical persons to provide balance to the initiative.

Recycling
It was noted that the possibility for recycling should be explored, while committees have been set deadlines for reporting on solutions.  It was pointed out that the execution of the motion needs resources which should be provided by Central Government and it was also acknowledged that youths have valuable contributions to make and should therefore be included in the programme.