After initial “teething problems,” Chairman of the Mon Repos/La Reconnaissance Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) Ayube Mohammed says the council has gotten work done, including improving garbage collection.
“It has been very challenging but it is very satisfying to get the work done. Sometimes, you are faced with challenges but when we [the councillors] put our heads together, and they are cooperative, it makes us all better,” Mohammed told Stabroek News.
Mohammed added that while he has accomplished about 60% of the goals he had set for the year, initially most of the councillors, himself included, were not fully aware of their duties and they had faced some challenges. “But now we are coming on stream and even I didn’t know everything but we are coming around now and working together,” he added.
The council is made up of 17 councillors from the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and one from A Partnership for National Unit and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC).
Mohammed explained that when he came into office, garbage collection was in “total disarray,” and this was the first issue they tackled. He explained that because the workers were not being paid on time, most of them had left, which had resulted in the garbage collection being stalled in the communities.
“First of all, we got staff back to do the work because there was a depletion because they weren’t being paid on time and that happened because the old council came off and the administration was not able to pay them by the way of cheques,” he said.
He added that one of the NDC’s tractors was also down and so they had to rebuild a trailer to accommodate the amount of garbage that was being accumulated. As a result, the NDC was forced to engage the services of a truck to assist with the garbage collection, which costs the council approximately $500,000 every month.
Mohammed added that in order to further make the garbage collection programme more efficient, they have decided to spend approximately $3M, from the subvention they received from Central Government, to purchase a small compactor truck. “So now we have one of the best garbage collection programmes on the East Coast,” he boasted.
With respect to the Mon Repos Market, Mohammed explained that they have employed Cevons Waste Management to collect garbage every day, which costs $17,000 per week. However, he noted that they are working towards purchasing a small compactor for the area.
While some of the vendors and stallholders have complained about the condition of the market, Mohammed pointed out that that works are planned for the fence, gate and on the market itself. However, he pointed out that there is a possibility that Central Government will budget for a larger scale rehabilitation of the market.
“We have been doing work to the market. Even when we first came here we closed it for a week and there was collaboration between the council and the stallholders… and we cleaned it up,” he noted.
Additionally, Mohammed explained that they are currently doing drainage works in the main canals and road works within the communities that will exceed over $1M.
Mohammed highlighted that one of the challenges the council is currently facing is keeping vendors from occupying the tarmac opposite the Mon Repos Market during the week. “They aren’t supposed to be vending during the weekdays because it’s only for weekend vending and they are still doing it,” he pointed out, while explaining that whenever the vendors are finished they usually leave the area with garbage, which the council has to pay to be cleaned.
While the council has been spending money to provide services to the communities, Mohammed explained that the revenue collection has not been “very good.” For the last quarter of the year, it has only collected 64% of the expected revenue and it is currently running sensitisation programmes to address the situation. “We have embarked on a series of meetings with the public where we go and talk to the residents through each constituency candidate and we would also have regular monthly meetings,” he noted.
He explained that they are also preparing a list of persons who are not paying their rates and taxes so that they can have special meetings with them. “We have also made a decision to waive some of the interest so that we can get them to start paying back their debts,” he said.
There are persons who refused to pay their outstanding fees and Mohammed explained that the NDC is going to be engaging an attorney to find the best possible way of recovering what it is owed.
Meanwhile, some residents of communities that fall under the NDC have lauded the authority for its initial efforts, although they believe more can be done.
“Well, we see there are works going on in place and they don’t have as much as a garbage problem as they used to before, so they working a bit and we appreciate,” Ramjit Baldeo, a resident of Mon Repos told Stabroek News on Wednesday.
“I see they got a hymac digging by Agriculture Road and they does got garbage picking up but they have to do something fast with that market [at Mon Repos] because that need serious work. They does got that smell and it does just look so old,” added a resident of Lusignan, Indra Singh.
