The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) says it has received funding under a Cdn$5M programme to target minibuses in an anti-littering campaign that is expected to be put in full force on Tuesday.
The M&CC said the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) provided the funding that will allow the campaign to start in time for the Cricket World Cup (CWC) though some persons have said that the plan was long in the making and funding was the sore issue. The campaign is being executed by the solid waste management arm of the municipality in collaboration with the Municipal Governance and Management Programme (MGMP). It involves 300 minibuses that ply the numbers 40, 41, 42 and 45 bus routes and the exercises entail equipping the buses with small waste receptacles which drivers and conductors would be expected to encourage commuters to use, and to dissuade them from throwing garbage through the windows.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, MGMP representative Sharon Campbell said specially designed bumper stickers with the slogan “Don’t Litter! Use a Container” would be placed on the minibuses to identify them as participants in the campaign. She also said that commuters would be encouraged to travel with the participating buses. Town Clerk Beulah Williams said the process would be monitored by the council’s waste management officers who are expected to conduct routine checks with the bus drivers and conductors at the respective minibus parks and to host ‘rap’ sessions with the operators and commuters to determine how they have been responding to the initiative, the challenges they have encountered and to mobilise suggestions for improvement.
Some Grade 5 students and teachers of West Ruimveldt Primary School, who were trained under the Cycle Savers programme administered under the initiative, will also participate in the campaign. The programme, which is a collaboration involving the M&CC, the Ministry of Education and the MGMP, also boasts participation from members of the Minibus Association, Cycle Savers Club and final year social work students at the University of Guyana and aims to curb indiscriminate disposal of refuse. The council’s pre-launch activities include a television and radio programme, advertisements and ‘rap’ sessions at the minibus parks and a targeted outreach activity slated for tomorrow at a bus park in Central Georgetown.
Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor Robert Williams said the council is moving ahead with other aspects of its enhancement programme. He said the M&CC is making arrangements to have Le Repentir Cemetery weeded and cleaned up to 400 yards on each side and that it would be calling on the relatives of the persons buried there to come on board with them when they conduct a painting exercise on the tombs. Williams said the council intends to appeal to businesses to sell paint and paint brushes at reasonable prices to facilitate the exercise.
The cemetery was one of the places that had remained untouched though works were done to repair roads in proximity to it.
