–Council expends $1M weekly

GEORGETOWN is currently bearing a weekly $1M tab to provide free commercial waste collection, according to the Mayor and City Council’s (M&CC) Solid Waste Management Director, Walter Narine.

However, Narine is urging the newly-elected councillors to change this situation by reconsidering the provision of free waste collection for businesses. He insists that providing such a service to the corporate community is helping to drain the city’s coffers.

Narine was at the time speaking at a special orientation session to help acquaint councillors with the functioning of the Municipality. As part of his department’s presentation and their 2016 work plan, the Solid Waste Management Director pointed out that, “Guyana is the only country in the Caribbean that gives free waste collection for businesses. This is at a cost of some $1,000,000 per week for the Council.”

Narine charged that in order for the Solid Waste Management Department to increase its service provision and better its functioning, “feasible plans would have to be devised to increase income for Solid Waste services.”

In the past some business people, large and small, hired homeless persons, or so-called ‘junkies’, to dispose of their waste when the Council could not adequately provide the service. These ‘junkies’ helped to strew waste about the city, adding to the garbage epidemic that had struck Georgetown.

Narine suggested that these persons should be regulated according to environmental laws and policies. He believes that those hired to dispose of waste around the city, such as horse cart and push cart men, should be regulated to ensure that they are adhering to proper policies pertaining to the environment. Persons who are found using ‘junkies’ to dispose of waste should be disciplined, he suggested.

This matter and several other issues are said to be high on the Council’s agenda.