THE recently announced joint venture Clean-Up My Country Programme by the Guyana Government is long overdue and most welcomed, especially in Georgetown. The Government through its Ministry of Finance had earmarked one billion dollars for the restoration of communities in and around Georgetown city. While a billion dollars is a lot of money, it is woefully inadequate to aggressively curb the culture of littering, and the beautification of the city, but Government like so many of us realised something needed to be done, and quickly.

Already, community outreach consultations have commenced and residences are contributing their voices on issues they face in their respective communities. There is, however, a recurring theme in the concerns of those residence at these meetings, they seemed to have abandon ownership of self and service to their communities and a kind of dependency sickness have replaced self-reliance. It’s clear residence support the clean- up project by Government but disowns any responsibility for the deplorable condition of many of their communities.
We have become an invalid people, depending heavily on Government to cater to our every need. While there is nothing wrong with expecting our elected officials to act in our interests, we too have a responsibility to our country and future generations.
A 1998 Inter- American Development Bank report indicates that the per capita generation of waste in Georgetown City exceeds 190 tons on a daily basis. That is a lot of filth. Though, in a fledging economy the accumulation of waste is nothing out of the ordinary, it is the failures of the city’s council to better manage collection of solid waste that remains worrisome. Poor governance by Georgetown’s Council have resulted in the backlog of tons of solid waste in just about every nook and cranny yet very little, up until now, has been done to adequately confront this crisis that exist at the Mayor and City Council. Though the project is a long way from completion one could hope that by its end the Mayor too would have been weeded out of office. In the meantime, the city is stinking.

ERIN NORTHE