November 26, last year was the last time the major garbage removal contracting companies withdrew their services from Georgetown, citing non-payment of huge outstanding sums of money and following a nauseating pattern that has unfolded for more than a decade. Unfortunately, not much is likely to change this year. Although it was reported that the central government stepped in and paid the $160 million that was owing to the contractors, all the players involved, including the long-suffering residents of the city are well aware that such a payment is a stop gap at best and is unlikely to continue.
It is also well known that the municipality does not have the wherewithal to manage its services. If the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has been consistent with anything in the past 20-odd years, it would be being in the red and running the city mostly on the hot air wafting around the horseshoe table. The woes of workers not being paid in a timely fashion and millions of dollars owed to the Guyana Power and Light and the National Insurance Scheme have been well documented. Also, in the not-so-distant past, decisions on spending were obviously ill-advised. One obvious case is the incomplete Presidential Park on the Merriman Mall. Is there any way out of the abyss in which the city finds itself?
There has been a lot of hurrah over the shoo-in election of Pandit Ubraj Narine as the new Mayor of Georgetown. His selection came after last year’s local government elections and he replaced his fellow APNU member, former two-termer Patricia Chase-Green, whose tenure was nothing short of acrimonious. No doubt, Pandit Narine will bring a different style of leadership to the M&CC, but it would be unrealistic for citizens to expect any miracles; many of the faces around the table remain the same.
As things stand currently, fixing Georgetown will take much, much more than the election of a new mayor or even a new council. There will still be need for better attention to maintaining city ordinances, drainage, the municipal markets, the cemetery, garbage collection, weeding and street cleaning, roads, streetlights, pavement and roadside vending, noise pollution, proper rate collection and most of all accountability; not forgetting fixing City Hall before it collapses. There is a not-improbable notion that the city’s woes could be spent down. And while it has been proven that if one could throw enough money at a problem it would eventually cease to be, there would need to be rigorous financial management for this to work here. Unfortunately, the signs all point to Georgetown being bereft of such. One only need look at the parking meter fiasco to see that this is indeed the case. It was an untenable plan and one that would not have garnered near enough funds to make a difference.
The truth is that Georgetown, while an interesting mix of old and new, is an unsustainable city. It has been expanded, perhaps unwisely, past bursting point in terms of the wards it currently enfolds. Its population as at 2012 was about a third of the entire country’s citizens and that number has continued to grow in line with global trends. Meanwhile, its infrastructure has not kept pace; too many streets (a lot of them cannot even be called that) are just as narrow as they were 50 years ago, water and sewerage structures are still to catch up, as is electricity, telephones and now the internet. Public transportation remains in the hands of a long string of private operators of minibuses, many of whom do whatever they like. That unreliability has fostered the growth of vehicle ownership, hence the current traffic nightmare.
What is rich, is that for years, successive governments have looked on benignly at this utter confusion and called it progress and have seduced citizens into believing just that. Over the years, there has been talk about the possibility of moving the capital, but no government to date has made any definitive moves towards what would be a huge undertaking, yes, but really serious progress. There has seemingly been no cognisance of the fact, also, that after nearly two centuries—Georgetown having marked its 175th anniversary last August—Guyana has just a single city. While, there is merit in increasing the number of towns, none of the settlements that were recently upgraded were properly designed with township in mind, they simply grew.
Most of us are aware that neighbouring Brazil changed its capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia. But is it common knowledge that the process started in the 1950s? And that Brasilia was purpose built? Other countries have done likewise, including Nigeria, Russia, Pakistan and the Cote d’Ivoire. And over the past year, there has been much buzz over Amaravati, a city being built in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, India. When completed, it will be that state’s capital; it is not a case of India changing its capital city. However, in keeping with modern times, it will also be one of the most sustainable cities in the world. Designed by British architectural firm Foster and Partners, Amaravati will feature solar panels on rooftops, cycling routes, electric vehicles and water taxis for its transport network, a recycled water irrigation system and shaded streets to encourage walking. It is costing the Indian government US$6.5 billion and most of the work is slated for completion by 2021.
The building of a proper sustainable city away from the threat of the Atlantic Ocean would be a good use of Guyana’s future oil revenue and a way to benefit all Guyanese.