Dear Editor,
A rat infestation has developed on the seawall foreshore from the Kitty roundabout westwards to Camp Street and eastwards to Queen Street, Kitty. Here’s a report that emanated from a user of the seawall for relaxation purposes.
Two months ago September 2019 a citizen of our beloved country Guyana, took his family of four to enjoy a treat on the seawalls at a spot close to the Kitty roundabout. On arriving on the wall with their meal purchased from KFC they proceeded to sit on the wall and began placing their purchases besides them. No sooner had they done this, a rodent, the size of a cat, crawled up alongside and swiftly pulled away one of the food boxes. By the time they realized what had transpired, there was a swarm of rats, what appeared to the man to be a nest of hundreds of rats, that the box with chicken could not be seen. This swift action caused the man to investigate what was taking place below the walls on the seaside to the Atlantic Ocean, only to discover that there are colonies of rats seemingly resident on, under and around the massive boulders protecting us the inhabitants from the sea. The family immediately left the seawalls for their home and vowed never to return to do what they thought would be a relaxing and refreshing family time.
Why this upsurge of rats over the walls? The garbage along the seawalls on this stretch of seawall is appalling, shameful, disgusting and downright embarrassing to us as Guyanese. Here, I repeat, the city of Georgetown has once again returned to being identified as the garbage city. Who is responsible for the cleaning, security and maintenance of this stretch of seawall? Can the responsible body of authority be held accountable to give an account to the citizens of Guyana, why our citizens and visitors to our country and those resident, must be subjected to this unhealthy environment, where we, from little babies to seniors are unknowingly exposed to leptospirosis, a deadly disease transmitted via rats. Families with little babies sit and play with their children on this part of the wall. No Guyanese after reading this letter should comfortably sit on this rat infested space but should think twice before doing so.
The food vendors who were permitted to develop individual food vending along this stretch of road alongside the wall, should be held accountable and responsible for disposing of their garbage and cleaning their place and space before close of business for the night. Maybe a system should be in place where the vendors should collaborate with the garbage disposal services for garbage to be collected each night at a specific time or position and assign a bin to each vendor, this way accountability is set in place. Failure to adhere to these environmental measures should result in the enforcement of fines to those operating outside of these rules. Notwithstanding penalties for breach of measures, vendors should be trained about the importance of practising proper hygiene as it relates to food selling in public spaces. This way we could minimize and contain the spread of the rats while measures are put in place to reduce the rat population in this area.
Can the Environmental Protection Agency investigate what truly is taking place behind these walls and provide a solution to prevent this colony of rats from further multiplying?
Yours faithfully,
Maria Rodrigues
