THE Mayor and Town Council (M&TC) of Bartica, the township in Region Seven, has secured $20M from Central Government to restore the overused Byderabo Dumpsite, after years of residents complaining about the environmental and health risks it poses.Residents can now expect “real changes” when the multi-million-dollar waste management project takes effect.

In an exclusive interview, Mayor Gifford Marshall told Guyana Chronicle that the contract for the project has already been tendered, and is expected to be awarded before the end of July, being currently evaluated.

“We will have a holding pond. We will have to bury some of the garbage, and of course we would have to shape it and include two cells. There is a plan in place, and the site will be managed properly,” the Mayor said as he alluded to some of the features in the plan to restore the dump site.

However, given that the Byderabo Dumpsite is located in a residential area, the Bartica Mayor and Town Council is eyeing a longer-term plan to relocate the dumpsite to 12 and 14 miles up the Potaro Road, while the present Byderabo Dumpsite will be converted into a green space.

Marshall said the Town Council is “big” on effective waste management. He noted that every effort will be made to transform Bartica into the country’s green town.

Since taking office, the APNU+AFC Coalition Government has been pumping significant sums of money into municipalities across the country to curb the waste disposal problem that had gripped the nation.

Last December, the Ministry of Communities handed more than $60M worth of equipment and receptacles to the then Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Bartica Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), to assist with collection of garbage. One dump truck, one excavator, 30 large plastic bins and 3,000 garbage bags were among the items handed over to the IMC.

Additionally, the Natural Resources Ministry, last April, contributed close to one million dollars to clean sections of Bartica, particularly in the vicinity of the stelling, where hundreds of bottles, plastics and other debris have been visible in the river. The exercise had formed part of the Ministry’s “A Clean Environment” Project.

With continuous steps being taken to clean up Bartica, the Mayor said, there is greater need for a sensitization programme to be rolled out in the town. As such, he would have written the Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, requesting additional funds to roll out a sensitization programme.

Marshall said that while garbage receptacles are in place, many residents are still disposing their garbage in a “reckless manner.”

“We have bins placed in strategic locations, but persons are misusing them. We have cases where persons would have dumped animals in the bins; they put old fridges or washing machines in these bins — and these are plastic bins with wheels — so what you will find is that, after a while, these bins will be destroyed,” Marshall explained.

In the interim, the Mayor is calling on residents to utilize appropriate garbage receptacles and to keep their environment clean.