A joint initiative started on Sunday by the new government, the Mayor and City Council and private citizens “has as its main goal the desilting of the 11 outfall channels in the city so as to minimize the flooding caused by the May/June rains,” Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green said yesterday.
There was evidence of these efforts as machinery owned by BK International could be seen removing debris from the South Road canal.
Chase-Green said, “This is the beginning of a campaign that will hopefully birth a lot of changes in the capital city by the time Guyana celebrates its 50th Independence Anniversary in 2016,”
“The Council,” she said, “has in the last few days been approached by several private citizens and business persons who wish to be part of the process of restoring Georgetown to its former glory.”
One of these offers of assistance, according to the Deputy Mayor came from a teacher of a city secondary school, who volunteered her class to assist in the cleaning of the area where the school is located.
Chase-Green called for all citizens to help the efforts being made by cleaning their parapets and the drains closest to the entrance to their properties.
Asked why she believes these offers of assistance had not come before she said that persons were interested in seeing change, but not “motivated to be part of the change. The change of government… has motivated its people to be part of shining it up.”
As part of the campaign the Brickdam Independence Arch as well as other monuments in the city are being restored in preparation for the May 26 inauguration of President David Granger.
This move, according to Minister of State-designate Joe Harmon is part of the new administration’s attempt to engender a greater degree of unity by respecting symbols of nationhood.
“Those things are part of our heritage, they are part of what we call the symbols of nationhood and these things have to be respected and this is going to be a feature of the David Granger administration.
We believe when you respect symbols of nationhood there is a greater degree of unity that is engendered in the society,” Harmon said.
Mayor Hamilton Green said this move is a welcome one as he had been “saddened by the previous administration’s treatment of heritage sites, national monuments and other things which characterize our nation and identify our history and our struggles.”
Both he and Chase-Green expressed confidence that the restoration of City Hall would be a priority of the new government.
This has motived the Mayor to put together a team to enhance the restoration of City Hall. The team has already scheduled a meeting with the European Union for this week to address plans for the restoration.
Meanwhile, the Independence Arch which was located at Ruimveldt has still not been replaced.
The arch which had been a popular landmark since its construction was removed on November 14, 2004 when road expansion works were taking place there.
When it was taken down the then Public Works minister Anthony Xavier was quoted by the Government Information Agency (GINA) as saying that a new one would be set up across the four-lane road.
Four years later, then Public Works minister Robeson Benn had told Stabroek News that the damage caused during its removal and bad storage had made the Independence Arch unsuitable to be put up anywhere in the city, but government was committed to its rebuilding and reinstallation before the 2009 Independence celebrations.
Today more than 10 years on, it is still not in place. For the last two months Stabroek News has made several attempts to locate the arch or a record of its last location.
Staff of the Ministry of Public Works including Technical Adviser Walter Willis told Stabroek News that the last they knew of the Arch it was stored in the compound of the ministry on Fort Street.
However, Harmon said yesterday in a response to a question asked by Stabroek News that he knew “where the one that was taken down from Ruimveldt is.
“It will take some amount of technical work to get these things done. The refurbishment and rehabilitation work that is taking place on the one at Brickdam this is the first step.
There will be second and third steps to ensure that those other arches are restored to their normal glory.”
