Dear Editor,
As we are all aware, prevention is better than cure, and as such even though the public hospitals have good doctors and all the necessary medicine it is still better to stay healthy and avoid the hospitals.

In the circumstances I have been trying for years to get my surroundings clean so that my grandchildren and other members of my household can stay healthy, but all those I approached for assistance have ignored me.

Next door to my home in Grove EBD is a lumberyard, so the animal-drawn vehicles (horse carts) park in front of my house – sometimes as many as half a dozen. The animals urinate and defecate and create a most unhealthy situation; and this is continuous.

In 2008 I spoke to the local public health officer, Mr Steve Chichester, but he does not seem to have done anything about the matter. Then on September 24, 2008 I went to the health ministry to see Dr Bheri Ramsarran and was advised by a secretary to see Dr Ashok Sookdeo, the head of the environmental agency of that ministry, so I went to Dr  Sookdeo and complained. As far as I am aware nothing was done about my grievance, so the unhealthy situation continues.

As early as August 10, 2006 the people of my neighbourhood wrote a letter to the Stabroek News on this affair, hoping to attract the attention of the health authorities. In the letter the neighbours pointed out clearly they were not against the lumberyard, but that the horse carts could go to the old road between Grove and Craig/Good Success, one corner away, park there and go one by one to uplift lumber as called. On October 9, 2009 I met Dr Bheri Ramsarran at the MEN anger management symposium at the Pegasus, and mentioned this matter to him and he gave me his card and advised me to send him an email.

On June 21, 2010 I sent a letter to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (emailed  to Dr Ramsarran) on this said matter; it was received and signed for by someone at the EPA. One month later not hearing anything nor seeing any action I called the EPA and was put to speak to someone whose name I understood to be Devi, and she informed me my complaint was not an issue for the EPA.

Editor, as I write this letter, the stinking unhealthy situation continues and apparently no one in authority cares.

Enclosed are copies of the letter sent to the head of the EPA and the one published in the Stabroek News of August 10, ’06.

Yours faithfully,
Wendell P George

Editor’s note

We are sending a copy of this letter to the EPA for any comment they might wish to make.