Waste management is taking up over 50% of the revenues of the Beterverwagting /Triumph Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) and councillors who were elected at historic local government polls are now confronting problems which have led to frustration with one already contemplating resignation.
“Waste management is currently eating between 50-52% of our revenue and from what we could see we were not getting a good enough service,” Oscar Glasgow, the chair of the NDC’s Works Committee told Stabroek News recently. He said while the council has not been able to reduce the cost as yet, it has put systems in place to improve the service provided.
“We have an agreement with Cevon’s Waste Management which collects garbage on Tuesdays and Thursdays but we have also begun using one of the village tractors to collect garbage around the community,” NDC chairman Leyland Harcourt said.
This has led to the employment of six individuals in the community: four as labourers, one superintendent of works and one supervisor. The council has also benefitted from the donation of 35 drums from a local business for garbage collection. The businessperson has committed to providing 35 more in the near future. Harcourt said in this honeymoon period, the NDC has to do as much as they can with the goodwill citizens are sending their way.
The March 18th local government elections had seen the 8th of May community group winning 12 seats on the NDC while the PPP/C secured five seats and independent candidate Jimmaul Bagot won his constituency. Harcourt said that the council is committed and they are all working together. “The last two Saturdays, all of the council spent the entire day from 9 in the morning till 4 to 5 in the afternoon looking at the council’s finances and the waste management situation. We are determined to find a workable solution to the problems facing this community,” he said.
However, some of the residents are resisting the move to regulate the area resulting in one councillor considering tendering his resignation. PPP/C councillor Ganga Sukhram had signalled his intention to tender his resignation as he was the recipient of much abuse from the residents of his own constituency.
Sukhram, who spent most of his life in the United States, returned to Guyana in 2008 and since that time, has been engaged in community development work. He wants to see a pristine community that he can be proud of.
“I need persons to be more conscious of how they use the roadside spaces. A lot of people have old cars and builders waste on the parapets and when you ask them to move it, they say it been there for years and it ain’t been a problem so it can’t be a problem now. It has always been a problem. It is just that no one spoke up about it before,” Sukhram said. He took Stabroek News for a tour of his constituency during which he identified some of the worst offenders.
“Look here, this place is nice and clean, the grass well-tended,” he said pointing to a stretch of land in front of a resident’s home. “But on both sides, you seeing builders waste, concrete and sand and wood. No matter how much you tell them move it, they won’t,” the upset man said.
During the tour, Stabroek News observed residents housing farm animals, planting cash crops and operating snackettes and other small businesses on the roadsides, all of which are unregulated, according to the councillors.
Identifying one snackette, Sukhram said he had spoken to the operator several times asking her to move about four feet away from the main road but she has refused to comply. “We don’t want to stop anyone vending. We don’t want to prevent anyone from making a living. We would much prefer taxing them to generate revenue but we want them to operate safely. Where she is now, if someone stops to buy, they are standing right in the traffic,” he said.
Trench
Another vendor was operating practically over the Triumph trench in the vicinity of the railway embankment. “I have asked them to move to the other side of the road where they can be safer and operate more freely but they have refused to move. Right now if a vehicle loses control in this area, it will end up right in their stall and she has her children there with her sometimes,” Sukhram said.
Due to the uncooperative attitude of the residents, the councillor has considered resigning. The NDC chairman and other councillors, however, are refusing to even consider it.
“I told him even if he decides to resign, I won’t accept his resignation. You don’t allow real workers to quit. At this council, we have had collective support for every programme that has so far been proposed. All the campaigning ended at the council door. We are no longer PPP or 8th of May. Once we took those oaths, we became the council of BV/Triumph and we will work to better this community,” Harcourt said.
There is a keen awareness among the councillors that in order to implement development programmes, they have to improve their revenue collection rate which currently stands at 38%.
Harcourt said it is too low to finance the necessary programmes. It is also too low to secure a large government subvention under the Fiscal Transfers Act thus one of the first orders of business for the council is to improve the collection rate. For this year, they hope to achieve a minimum of 60%.
“When we took over this council, there were only three stalls in the market. The last council had not collected stall fees or roadside vending fees since 2011. Right now, most of our revenue is going to waste management and we have not yet been able to find a way to reduce that cost so we need to increase our revenue base. We have set up a market committee to oversee stall holders and regularise hucksters and roadside sellers. We are also hoping to have those in the Industrial site who have not been doing so, pay rates and taxes and become better corporate citizens,” Harcourt said.
He also highlighted that in 2001, a United Nations Population Fund adolescent sexual and reproductive health programme, Save Our Own Now, had secured a commitment from those businesses operating in the community to source 50% of their workers from the area.
“We once had the largest industrial site outside of Georgetown. A responsible council in any part of the world will have a good relationship with all the businesses in its proximity so we are approaching these businesses to see how best they can fulfil that promise they made. As far as I’m aware only ANSA McAL and to an extent Bakewell, has honoured that commitment,” Harcourt said.
