Waves of vendors and other volunteers flooded Water Street yesterday to clean up and “water the dead roots of the Garden City”.
The more than 100 persons gathered around 8 am at City Hall where they all registered their names and collected gloves, bags, masks and cleaning equipment from the council. After the equipment was shared out most people gathered and marched along in different groups to the southern end of Water Street at the Stabroek Market area.
The air was filled with unity and cooperation as the mass of volunteers dissolved into smaller units around the market area and cleaned drains, trash piles and any unused wooded structures around the area. Scores of bins were placed in the area and heavy-duty vehicles patrolled the street in a bid to dispose of all of the excess garbage and sand that were being cleared from the drains and road.
The cleanup continued through the scorching morning sun with vendors’ and volunteers’ faces flushed and dripping sweat. They worked with gusto and praised the City Council for pushing the campaign.
“I does vend on Regent Street not Water Street but you can’t think like that brother, it’s a country-wide thing and if you want to see a change then you gotto pick yourself up and make an effort. We all in this together, we all want to see change,” a vendor said to Stabroek News yesterday. He further stated that he was very happy with the council’s decision to start and continue with the clean-up campaign as he thinks the “roots of the Garden City need to be cleaned and watered to regrow”.
“This is we own, all this land and road and gutter is we the citizens’ own, no one else. So we gotto keep it clean,” another vendor added.
Ryman Fraser, a vendor who works around the Water Street area showered his appreciation on the campaign and the unity and cooperation that he had noticed since the start. “What I got to say is it is very good and it is going to bring back the Garden City… I remember as a little boy this area was always tidy and you coulda even catch fish in the drains. Now you can’t even walk next to them,” he said. “I love how everyone is cooperating in this cooperative country… everybody come out today and trying to make the country beautiful again and you have to appreciate that,” he added.
“It’s amazing at how many people I see turn up this morning and deh cleaning all over you know, everybody is out here and I thank God for change… We get change and we are seeing change. Don’t bother with people, everything happens in time and it takes time,” Fraser said.
Fraser admonished the citizens and the council that it is not a “one horse” race and that after the clean-up there should be measures put in place that will prevent littering and keep the areas cleaned. “We need more bins. All of these big business around the area should have a bin at their door or somewhere close by. We also need for people to realise that littering affects us all. Even if it is a small piece of paper you shouldn’t throw it on the ground, you wouldn’t like it if anyone come and throw garbage around where you are working or living so you shouldn’t be throwing those things, anything,” he said. Fraser added that the littering and pollution laws should be better implemented so as to target littering from every perspective.
Other vendors and volunteers welcomed the suggestions Fraser was making and lauded the city’s efforts and contributions towards keeping the city clean.
While Water Street was the targeted area, vendors expanded and cleaned several streets that run horizontal to Water Street.
At the end of the exercise, every person who registered was to receive a certificate of participation. The council has also struck a deal with the vendors around the area to have them pay $1,000 a week to the council who will keep the surrounding area clean.
The campaign started last week on Regent Street and will continue in the coming weeks.
