THE Mayor and City Council’s (M&CC) Solid Waste Management Department was able to clear some five metres of six-feet-high garbage on Tuesday from the yard of a woman who, it has been alleged, is mentally unstable.

Director of the Solid Waste Management Department Mr Walter Narine, informed the Guyana Chronicle that his department had been monitoring developments for some time.

“We received this report about two years ago that there was a particular resident of unsound mind that was hauling garbage and storing it in her yard. We would have made attempts to come and clear it, but she wasn’t allowing us. She was putting up some resistance and throwing debris at us,” Narine recounted. “But, as recently as yesterday, we learnt that she got help and they took her to get some help for her ailment and that is why this morning we moved in to clear the yard.”

Garbage of wide variety, but especially bottles and plastic bags, were heaped up against the western fence of the lot which accommodated a dilapidated flat house.
Narine said that while it was not the policy of M&CC to enter the premises of persons for garbage removal, the location was an “eyesore, an environmental risk and a fire risk” to residents close by.

Brother of the mentally ill woman, Linden King, who is also the caretaker of the land, was seen at the site assisting in the clean-up efforts and had even in the past interacted with the City Council about the situation.

King told the newspaper that his sister had been living at the location for over five years, but was recently transferred to the National Psychiatric Hospital in Berbice by a relative.
“She was always violent. If you try to tell her stop carrying rubbish she would get a cutlass and try to chop you. She damaged me several times, so I don’t take any chances,” King said.

King was of the view that his 42-year-old sister, who previously worked as a security guard, became mentally ill due to superstitious tampering by a jealous lover of her former fiancé.

Noting that huge rats and centipedes would frequent the area, King expressed satisfaction with the clean-up, stating: “I feel really happy and joyful because the neighbours used to fret.”

A neighbour closest to the home told the newspaper that he was aware that the former resident was mentally ill and he was pleased with the council’s work to remove the mountain of garbage.

SIGNIFICANT MILESTONES
According to information received, the Solid Waste Management Department, during the last few weeks, cleared 28 illegal dumping sites across the city, including the ‘pile-up’ on Water Street.

The team of garbage contractors would usually address ‘clean-up’ activities when their work-load was light. Director Narine, would, from time to time, resort to Facebook to present BEFORE and AFTER photographs of his department’s clean-up activities.

Narine pointed out that several persons had begun to contact him, via facebook, about locations where garbage was in abundance and appeared dangerous and unsightly.

“I’m very happy that we’re using social media to get information from residents because remember, at the council, we can’t see everything. So that’s why we opened up the door for them to give us information,” he stated. “Right now a resident saw [our most recent post] and indicated that in Middle Road, La Penitence there’s a similar yard with a similar situation of an unsound guy who is hauling garbage and storing it.”

Narine has had many ideas which he had begun to share with the previous council. Ideas would be shared with the present management of Georgertown under Mayor Pandit Ubraj Narine.

One of Director Narine’s ideas was the collection of garbage at night which he highlighted was done in other Caribbean countries such as St. Vincent and proved to be much more efficient.

“Collection at nights is easier [considering] environmental problems and congestion. If you know you’re going up the East Bank and you’re stuck in traffic with two or three garbage trucks, it’s really horrendous because of the smell and then, in terms of the vehicle, it would be easier because the sun will expand the fuel and you’ll use more as compared to nights when the fuel contracts and you use less,” he explained.

Narine added that “This is something I’m thinking about because we still have to talk to the residents; we still have to talk to the Ministry of Communities which is managing the landfill because we’ll have to get the landfill open at nights, so it’s something in the pipeline.”

Director Narine also told this newspaper that the council would soon be pushing for waste-separation measures to be adopted by Georgetown residents, whereby valuable items can be converted for monetary profit. He said that as he reminded that the city alone generates around 180 to 210 tonnes of garbage daily.

“It is something that we have to look at seriously to have waste separation at household levels, where each household will have a requisite amount of bins and they’ll put the right garbage into the bins and you can collect that and take it to the recycling centre,” he said, adding that the government is now planning to ban single-use plastic items such as plastic bags.

CHANGE THE CULTURE
As the department continues its work, Narine said that he was happy to observe that some illegal dump sites cleared by M&CC, since in 2014, had remained clean.

Narine acknowledged that the littering mentality of Guyanese remained a feat to contend with. He hoped that the laws regarding fines for littering which, were approved by the previous council, would be rolled out and upheld by the present council. In the meantime, he wants to see persons work to change their behaviours even as he noted that volunteers will soon be given the opportunity to come on board.

Narine said: “We’re open to anybody to come and help us, honestly. That’s why we’ve tried to start up some volunteer work and it will roll out more when the Mayor settles in. We need to bridge the divide; we want to incorporate the citizens of Georgetown with Council to share one vision and then we can take the city one way. If we can get that partnership, I think we have a very good way to go and we’ll have a clean city to look forward to.”
Added to this, the department hopes that the same spirit can catch on in other out-of-town areas.

The department’s team also aimed to remove a tree which was cut down and abandoned on the parapet on David Street while dump sites in Blygezigth, on the East Coast, and Cane View Avenue in South Ruimveldt Gardens were next on the list.

“I would like to ask everybody to stop littering,” Narine said firmly, urging: “If you do have excess garbage call the municipality. I prefer that we come to your site and we move it rather than you throwing it out on the road. It is free of cost; call us and we’ll come and remove it.”