Dear Editor,
THERE are two issues I had planned bringing to the attention of our administrators last week. However, the holidays and other events intervened.
Fortunately the two matters, related to our capital city, were ventilated in the media over the weekend. First, is this folly of filling in drainage canals in Georgetown and contiguous areas. The media report, in part, noted as follows:-

“Currently, most of what was once the Houston Estate Canal, where airboats and estate punts once traversed, have been filled up and only a small section of the waterway remains.

It is unclear what drainage systems are in place for the area.”
Some years ago, as mayor, it was agreed at the highest level that no waterway, which means, canal, trench, etal should be filled in. This was after the then Ministry of Local Government and others suggested that the High Street canal be ‘filled in’ to provide for vehicular parking, ostensibly to ease the traffic congestion in the central business district of Georgetown.

I strenuously opposed this proposal. Previous municipal and State officials, regardless of political persuasion, have unwittingly inflicted tremendous damage to our capital city. Monumental mistakes such as filling in Punt Trench Canal, now Independence Boulevard, the Church Street Canal, now Merriman Mall and the canals running north to south that flowed into these main canals. The Dutch understood that the city is below sea-level and therefore the crisscross of canals was absolutely necessary to maintain the integrity of our drainage system.

For now, I’ll avoid a long argument, except to say that persons who now attempt to fill in any waterway should be sent to jail; they would be interfering with the drainage system and creating inconvenience whenever there is rainfall.
This long discussion I read in the newspaper is stretching democracy and the rights of individuals to the limit. In the context of the fractured moral fibre of our society, it begs the question of whether there are selfish motives.

Next, the Georgetown Seawall.
I compliment the writer who drew to our attention the awful and unacceptable condition of the Georgetown Seawall. I don’t know if things have changed, but the maintenance of the seawall, in particular north of the wall, used to be the responsibility of the Sea Defence Board and not the Georgetown Mayor & City Council.

I have been advised that Mayor Ubraj Narine has attempted to get the responsible minister and agency to do something about this disgraceful condition that exists in this seawall complex–an area that was once a place where citizens and their families would go to relax, enjoying the serenity and tidiness of the beach to the north and the esplanade.

Benches were placed there and we did not have this noisiness that now exists. Over the past three days, I had occasion to visit persons (Pilots, Tuskegee University Alumni, Queens College Old Students and Foreign Visitors), who stayed at the Pegasus Hotel.
What should be a delightful, pleasant view from the hotel windows is now a sea,(no pun intended) of garbage; an ugly, and for me, an embarrassment.

Again, this letter will not recite what has been so well presented in the newspapers earlier, except to say this: I am a die-hard supporter of the President and the coalition.
However, the President, notwithstanding any accord or agreement needs to deal condignly with those person/persons who preside over this of our environment. Who is ignoring the President’s call for a ‘green’ economy?

We cannot afford to be nice guys in the face of not-nice happenings. We cannot be like Nero– fiddling while Rome was burning.
As someone once said, ‘Enough is Enough’ and speaking for myself, I cannot bear the pain of the embarrassment when I viewed the ugliness and disgraceful state of our seawall.

What message are we sending to people who come to do business with us or merely to visit? If an investor meets an official– government or private– and looks through a hotel room window to see this nastiness in our capital city, what will they think of us?

One result, in negotiations, they will understandably believe that they are dealing with scum and dregs of humanity and deal with us as such — this is human nature. This is not a simple matter; images are important and I hope action is taken post haste.

Regards
Hamilton Green