City Hall is not to blame for the present garbage situation in Georgetown as it is the responsibility of the Government and the Town Clerk.
This was the assertion of Mayor Hamilton Green who at a press conference on Tuesday issued a challenge for anyone to say otherwise. “I say publicly without fear, the ugly pile-up of garbage in Georgetown is the direct responsibility of the Government and … the present Town Clerk. I challenge any one to bring facts to suggest that statement is coloured. It may be the work of some demented or evil mind. (A) minister responsible for local government once said that he would welcome a health crisis in Georgetown. There you have it out of the horse’s mouth,” Green said.
According to Green, “It was the Town Clerk who recognized that in the final two months of the year that you need to increase your capacity to collect and store garbage. She puts two compactors in place so instead of increasing her capacity she reduces it. This city is a disgrace and you have a town clerk that violates the decision to engage two contractors to collect and dispose of the garbage, he said.
Green also noted that the 2013 subvention that was given to the council was a ‘drop in the ocean’ as the council requires cooperation and money to do its work effectively. “The city can do with at least half a dozen trucks to clear the garbage. We don’t have it. We need a modern workshop with trained personnel,” he said. The council had acquired $1.6 million from the Ministry of Local Government to address the garbage issue in the city.
On the issue of solid waste, Green said that the news that the Ministry of Local Government will be in receipt of $1M US to help with the solid waste programme is good news but it is bad news if one has to take account of our recent experience. He also called for the Government to establish a master plan to deal with the issue. “To deal with solid waste is not a Georgetown problem it is a national problem…There must be master plan and the government has not done that, solid waste is a serious issue. I am not optimistic about the $1M US.”
According to Green, when the initial solid waste project was initiated, the Inter-American Development Bank recognized that a public education programme was needed to sensitize persons on the issue, but this has not been done. “The establishment of a dump site which is now located outside of Haags Bosch and equally and more important was the establishment of a unit to deal with a public education programme. “I hope the media will ask the Minsiter where is the public education programme which was intended to be parallel with the establishment of Haags Bosch…The IDB recognized that if you are going to deal with solid waste then realistically you have to get people to change their bad habits. You have to get people in the school’s to re-educate people on this issue. This Mickey Mouse thing you heard from one Minister to clean up Georgetown is a band aid on a festering sore,” Green said.
He also informed that several business owners along Regent Street have been charged and prosecuted but the constabulary is ill-equipped to deal with the level of incompetence that exists in this country. “The business community is not without blame for much of what is happening in the city,” he further stated.
