Linden Mining Enterprise (LINMINE) General Manager Emmet Alves is incensed at the indiscriminate dumping of garbage in key locations in Linden which he blames for stymieing repair works to key bridges in the bauxite-mining community.
LINMINE which comes under state holding company, NICIL, usually supports the Mayor and Town Council (M&TC) financially each month.
A press release from NICIL yesterday said that Alves is outraged by the stubbornness of residents who turn a deaf ear to repeated pleas by officials of the M&TC, the Bridge Committee and LINMINE.
“We have…identified an area not very far away that the Council provided for residents to dump their garbage and the Council can remove it on a weekly basis. This suggestion has not been taken on board so we continue to struggle with getting residents not to dump around the bridge,” he said, according to the release.
Restrictions imposed by the Public Health Ministry to counter the COVID-19 pandemic have stalled plans by the Upper Demerara/Berbice (Region Ten) Bridge Committee. The release added that the intervention by NICIL to help the M&TC to solve the garbage crisis has borne little fruit. Alves noted that every month around three to four million dollars is disbursed to help the Council with its upkeep of the town.
“Nothing has materialised,” the disappointed LINMINE official said, adding “We have even suggested for the strategic placement of large bins…for residents to use but the Council, while embracing the idea informed us that they have no place to access such bins”.
He said a contractor is currently manufacturing skid bins, which hopefully, residents would use to dispose household refuse
The wanton dumping of garbage helps hasten rotting of structures and delays efficient maintenance of bridges, Alves said, referring to the Linden-Wismar Bridge linking the two Region 10 communities.
Officials are maximizing on the ongoing national COVID-19 curfew to fix the problem.
