THE Mayor and City Council (M&CC) is finding it increasingly difficult to cover garbage collection on its own in Georgetown and now wants to reduce collections in some quarters due to overwhelmingly high amounts of waste from residents.

After its two main contractors – Purans Disposal Services and Cevons Waste Management – pulled their services early in August, the M&CC had boasted that this new development has ‘opened their eyes’ to the possibility of providing the same services competently on their own, and that the money saved could be paid to the contractors to cover heavy, outstanding debts.

But Head of Solid Waste Management, Walter Narine, told the Chronicle on Sunday that areas such as Charlestown, Albouystown, Wortmanville and Werk-en-Rust, are producing significantly more waste than others and that twice-weekly clearance will have to be changed to once weekly.

However, residents of Charlestown and Albouystown have confirmed to the Guyana Chronicle that they are hardly getting even the once-per-week clearance.

“We put out our barrels and leave them there for days and then we just take them back inside when we are tired of waiting,” a resident of St. Stephens Street, Charlestown said on condition of anonymity.

Narine is saying that the above-mentioned areas are producing approximately 26 tonnes of refuse weekly, as compared to the other groups in Georgetown that produce about eight to 12 tonnes weekly.

“Because they are producing this amount of refuse, we had Puran’s clearing them twice weekly, but because of our limited resources, we cannot give two clearances per week; rather, only one. The residents could assist M&CC by reducing the amount of waste they produce,” Narine offered.

He observed that the M&CC is under strain to cover areas that feature many tenement yards and reiterated the need for them to reduce the amount of waste that they generate. Significantly, though, the areas to soon see a reduced collection have a great number of tenement yards.

Town Clerk Royston King last week said the M&CC is looking forward to opening new talks with the contractors and setting up new conditions, especially since the contracts are up for review in October. The contracts, which feature a review clause, remain in force until 2020.

City Hall, through its Solid Waste Management Department, has undertaken to provide garbage collection and disposal services throughout Georgetown, with assistance from a few small contractors.

But King has subsequently reported that the trucks and other equipment belonging to M&CC are very old and have never been subjected to this type of pressure before, since the municipality had been depending on the contractors.

“They’re now being put to the test,” King offered, and this, he said, is affecting the way the M&CC is collecting the city’s waste.

According to King, the M&CC is now moving to procure trucks from overseas, so that it can eventually cover 60 per cent of garbage collection and divide the remaining 40 per cent between contractors.

“While we have been paying and building private contractors, improving their capacity, we have neglected our own capacity, so we really have limited capacity to do what we’re doing. So we must re-think our operations and build our capacity; and so if we hire contractors, they will not be doing the bulk of the work,” King said.