A MERE six months after receiving township status, Bartica has set its sights on realising another goal — being the cleanest township in the country.Bartica Mayor Gifford Marshall has revealed that the Council is partnering with the relevant stakeholders to ensure that the town is highly regarded, not only for being picturesque, but also for its attention to the environment.

In keeping with its objectives, the Town Council will, on November 28, launch an integrated solid waste management programme as part of a massive sensitisation campaign regarding sound solid waste management practices. The Ministry of Communities will lend support to the initiative, and the Council is also anticipating much stakeholder involvement as a collective commitment to this desirable objective.

Town Clerk Phoebe Wallerson has revealed that immediately following the sensitization campaign, a group of youths will be trained to keep up the momentum in regard to the township maintaining commitment to sound solid waste management practices. The youths are already very willing and quite excited to participate in the process, she disclosed.

“We will equip them with relevant identification badges; clothes; and, more importantly, the skills to deliver an impacting interactive learning session with households,” the Town Clerk said.

The sanitation programme is timely, since residents are high in praise for the work done to upgrade the landfill site.

“We want to capitalise on the heightened awareness we are receiving to peddle the need for residents to take ownership and responsibility for their environment, and to add to our efforts,” Ms. Wallerson said.

Mayor Marshall disclosed that $15 million were spent to rehabilitate the site, and an additional $5M will be spent on covering it with clay.

“So we have the renovated site, which was funded by the Government of Guyana. In the last phase of the project, Government, through the Town Council, will cover the garbage with clay,” Mayor Marshall explained.

He also revealed that works are in train to rehabilitate the Byderabo Back Road that leads to the landfill.
The Council is already rallying support from residents and the corporate community in this regard.

The proprietor of the Shell Service Station at Camp and New Market Streets in Georgetown, Mrs. Patricia Callender, has since pledged 45 gallons of diesel monthly from the Sol Bartica Depot as assistance to the Council’s sanitation efforts. The Callenders are residents of Bartica and owners of real estate along the Essequibo River in the vicinity of the town. They spend most of their weekends in that part of Guyana, and have disclosed plans to retire there sometime in the near future.

In a letter to the Town Council, the Callenders disclosed that they have always been very concerned about the garbage situation in Bartica, and have installed Rubbermaid bins along First Avenue in an effort to alleviate Bartica’s garbage situation.

“We had meant this to be (the) start of an effort to eventually install bins in most of the avenues…. It is our hope that Bartica will become clean and green, and we would like to partner with you in this mission,” the letter stated.

Mayor Marshall expressed confidence that the contribution would be the first step in realising the goal of making Bartica ‘Clean and Green’, and a community that everyone can be proud of. During brief comments, the mayor said the timely arrangement would aid the council in its effort to make Bartica the cleanest town in the country.