TODAY, I write to you on a situation that has plagued society for some time now, and something has to be done quickly to arrest it, because we are all at a public health risk.
Now, the first thing that greets you while travelling from our international airport at Timehri is the putrid smell of a hog-pen. The smell is so sickening that you lack words to describe it. I am at a loss as to why this state of affairs was ever allowed to happen. The question is: where is the public health officer? Is there not a public health inspector for that area? Then, if there is, how come this situation got to this stage? Is that public health officer bereft of a sense of smell? Or is his olfactory meatus nonfunctional?
Either way, the situation (and the hog-pen) just stink to the high heavens, and no one seems to care. Why did he/she allow this situation to happen in the first place? I am of the opinion that either the public health personnel, whomever he/she is, is either afraid of this nasty pig-rearer, or something else is at work here that we are not aware of.
You get within the vicinity of Soesdyke, and this horrible smell hits you like a ton of bricks. It is a violent public health assault on your nostrils the minute you negotiate this area. And the greater part of it is that this man is located not too far from the Soesdyke Police Station, which tells me that the police are also guilty of this lawlessness persisting for so long.
I am absolutely sure that reports have been made to them about this man, and nothing came out of it. That pig-rearer should have been dragged before a court for disturbing the peaceful existence of the residents (visitors alike) with the foul air coming from his pigpen.
I am from an agricultural community, and I studied agriculture at the Guyana School of Agriculture, so I know well what I am talking about. For someone to engage in livestock rearing, the likes of pigs, you must first have a concreted floor for the collection of its excrement; pigs cannot be reared on a bare clay surface. If this is the case, which I am of the firm opinion, then, this livestock-rearer is a cheap, lazy individual who is now visiting his offensive assault on the local residents as well as visitors.
When I say lazy, I am also talking about a person who does not clean his pens, something that has to be done every day. I have forwarded copies of this letter to the Ministry of Health, as well as to the Minister of Home Affairs for quick action. This nonsense has to stop.
Neil Adams