Dear Editor,
I would like to express my considerable disappointment having observed the very basic and stopgap repairs that are currently being carried out to the almost 90-year-old Municipal Abattoir building located on Water Street which was damaged by a falling crane a year and a half ago.
One would have thought that the opportunity of this accident would have been taken to tear down this dilapidated building which has been around since 1933 if there were any City Fathers and Mothers and Administrators with any vision or foresight at the City Council. Instead, they seem pretty proud of themselves to be propping up an old ‘Slaughterhouse’ rather than building a new and modern Abattoir and Meat Processing Facility. One built to international standards where the Council can have it ISO certified to allow for the export of meats to other parts of the world.
The floor needs to be ripped up and re-laid to remove those cracks and holes that encourage the growth of microorganisms. The current old concrete floor cannot even take the pressure of falling animals, some weighing as much as eight hundred pounds.
The gates securing the pens of the lairage, where animals are placed approximately 24 hours before being slaughtered are all broken and or severely damaged with rails etc. missing.
The lairage has no sheds to protect the animals from harsh weather conditions such as currently being experienced, another abominable state of affairs. Could you believe that the Abattoir uses a fireside to get access to hot water instead of a proper industrial heating system? This is how they process the heel, the tripe, the face and runners. The Abattoir is also in dire need of plumbing fixtures. They need modern scales to weigh the animals, better water supply, a pig de-hairing machine and the list goes on.
There is vast potential for Guyana’s agricultural sector with the boosting of beef and pork production, with the long-term aim of tapping into the international market for meat, but the City Council needs to step up to the plate. Unfortunately, however, with the square pegs in the round holes at City Hall such a plan cannot even be conceptualized. They are in a time warp, somewhere still in the 1930s when the Abattoir was built.
I know the tune that they will sing, that they are cash-strapped, that is the tune the old cow died on; all they have to do is issue municipal bonds as all cities do, to raise capital and within a couple of years that money would have been repaid. But as they say you can’t be arguing with individuals who refuse to broaden their perspectives.
It is just such a dichotomy that at the national level there is transformative, progressive and insightful planning whilst at the level of the city, the capital and only city there is such a lack of vision, primitive thinking where the administrators seem brain dead. Shouldn’t the City and the country be moving forward together in the new oil and gas economy?
Best regards.
Deodarie Putulall
