-mayor blames limited dumpsite hours for pile up
The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) will start a public outreach programme in an attempt to curb the garbage problem in Georgetown and continued to cast blame on the 10-hour opening period of the Haags Bosch dumpsite.
“The situation of George-town is unacceptable. Why? The increase in waste. In the earlier days people took it to Le Repentir any hour because we kept that facility open 24 hours a day. With all the billions utilised, we have a situation where the site at Haags Bosch on the East Bank is opened between 7 and 5. I pleaded for it to be opened beyond 5, at least 16 hours a day,” Mayor Hamilton Green stated at a press conference yesterday at City Hall.
When the media were invited to the press briefing, it was said that the focus would be the budget, which was presented to the Local Govern-ment Ministry. However, hardly any mention was made of this.
“Yesterday [Thursday] the minister summoned the Town Clerk and the Chairman of the Finance Committee to discuss budget. What budget? Some days workers don’t have water when they are working out there… Some days we don’t have fuel,” the Mayor said.
Green stated that on Monday last he and APNU MP Ronald Bulkan attended a meeting at the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce after he received what he described as a “very strongly worded” letter from the body. According to the Mayor, the body expressed concern of the untidy state of the city, specifically the pile up of garbage at almost every block of Georgetown. “They said the diplomatic community live in Georgetown… major organisations are here and businesses are affected by the unhappy state of the city,” he relayed.
He noted too that the twin issues of local government election and reform were also addressed and added that Bulkan explained to the chamber that there was not much the M&CC could do about reforms, nor local government elections, which, he opined, was interfering with the integrity of the political process.
Turning his attention to government engineer Walter Willis, who has been relieved of managing the Haags Bosch dumpsite, Green said this was because he had exposed inappropriate behaviour and corruption. “We believe he was fired because he exposed equipment which was reportedly new and worth millions brought in by BK International…,” Green said.
The mayor stated that the new facility is not serving its purpose as intended when the proposal was initially made. In addition to this, Green said, a proposal had been made for an incinerator and a well-funded public relations programme.
He said it was “clear to me” that the government was not really concerned about the garbage situation.
Green said council would be going to communities to provide them with a better understanding of the operations within the council. “People are using junkies to take their garbage. Those junkies don’t have facilities or interest to go to Haags Bosch so they are dumping it on the corner,” he stated, adding that the business community must speak up.
“They cannot enjoy the luxury of silence anymore when they have expressed concern, they need to come out and say this is unsatisfactory,” the mayor urged.
Bulkan, who was also present at the press conference, said that citizens only look at the unhealthy situations such as the dirty drains and blame the council. But he said the fault lay with central government which “has been interfering intolerably in the operations of this council and councils countrywide and creating chaos.”
He, too, encouraged public education, especially as it relates to local government with the hope of these elections being held soon.
