The celebration of the 50th year of Guyana’s Independence is fast approaching and much good work is being done in cleaning up the City of Georgetown. On the occasion of the celebrations, thousands of Guyanese from the Diaspora who had never visited their homeland for many decades will be ingathering and we hope to accord them a fitting welcome.

Our capital city will again regain its pristine glory and downtown has gone a far way in this direction.
A few weeks ago, this column reminded the organizers of the “City clean-up campaign” of the importance of the quick removal of the vagrants from the streets and pavements. This week we would like to address the theme of the trees of the City and the drainage, especially of the outlying areas east of Kitty and south of Albouystown’s Independence Boulevard.
Old Georgetown had the enviable reputation of being the Garden City of the West Indies. Trees were planted along the main roadways under the guidance of horticulturists and were always cleaned and kept free of parasites, trimmed and kept in good condition by the Town Council. Each street had its own type of trees. In Main Street, for example, there were stately Samaans, in Camp Street there were the blazing red flamboyants so memorably captured in Sharples’ water colours, in Upper Hadfield Street there were the Mora trees, in Broad Street two columns of stately cabbage palms, one on each side of the street ran from the Le Repentir Cemetery’s gate to Saffon Street. Brickdam, the City’s most famous street, ran from Vlissingen Road across the City and was planted on either side with rare or little known trees, some of them exotic.
The trees were never allowed to become too tall so as to maintain a pleasing symmetry in the skyline. And dead or diseased trees were promptly replaced. All trees were tagged with permanent metal plaques stating their common names as well as their botanical names and some class teachers in the primary schools had their classes study the names and descriptions of the trees as part of their Nature Study. A few of these metal plaques still survive.
Many trees of 19th and 20th century Georgetown still survive and some semblance of the tree lined streets could still be restored as far as practicable, taking into account the parking needs for motor vehicles. In this exercise, the advice and guidance of the Police Traffic Department, a horticulturist and interested NGO’s could be sought.
Greater effort should be concentrated on the “newer” outlying parts of the City (Greater Georgetown) such as Subryanville, University Gardens and Sophia and other districts east of the Old City as well as districts to the south such as Ruimveldt. Old Georgetown could provide the newer areas with much useful information and guidance in tree-planting.
Old Georgetown, despite never using pumps, and depending wholly on its drainage infrastructure and natural drainage, successfully got its excess water to the river. Flooding of the city was very rare. Today, after a heavy shower, the City is flooded. If the drainage system were cleaned and maintained, there would be no flooding. This means clearing the small feeder-drains of silt and debris and an occasional blow-out by the Fire Service. The bigger “collector canals” have been cleaned in the current “Cleanup Campaign” but the kokers need to be cleared and repaired and competent Koker operators need to be appointed. The outfalls in the River need to be dredged.
In passing, it should be mentioned that the excess earth dug from the canals and drains could be used to build up the low parapets, and more important, to build up the road shoulders. Many main roads or parts of those roads do not have shoulders so the sides of the roads keep breaking away causing their quick deterioration. This disastrous situation could be seen in upper Brickdam, in parts of Camp Street and in North Road in the vicinity of the Bourda Market.
Many of the newer districts east of the Old City depend on pumps to drain them but there is almost always flooding after a moderate shower of rain. The main reason for this is because, first, the small cross-drains which are almost all earth drains are clogged and silted up; secondly, the culverts, wherever they exist are clogged or even broken; and lastly, many of the parapets are of the same level as the road and this allows water from the clogged drains to flow unimpeded to the road.
The drainage of these areas could be quickly brought under control if it is tackled area by area rather than to attempt to deal with the whole large area. For example, if Subryanville were a pilot project, it could be drained in a few days: Firstly, the largely mud drains of the five streets of the area could be cleaned by a small dragline in a matter of two days, Guyana Water Inc being asked to temporarily remove the water pipes going over the drains so that the dragline could work rapidly. The mud from the drains could be used to immediately build up the parapets. The culverts could then be cleared or repaired in a week. Subryanville would then be adequately drained. And the same could be repeated for other contiguous districts.