Dear Editor,
When I lived in the Abu Dhabi/Dubai area of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), that country was very clean, very safe, and very rich. We say we want to be like Dubai, and that’s good. They systematically clean all the time. In the malls, a worker sits in the toilet and sprays and cleans after every user. In the Carrefours (grocery stores) and malls workers drive around little machines that vacuum the floor all the time. Every morning, there would be thousands of workers along the roads picking up trash and any landscaping debris. Daily, they swept the sand in front of the entrance door and driveway of my villa. (The UAE is a sandy desert so it’s sand everywhere). Every plant, tree or grass you see has hoses running through to provide water since it does not rain there.
It was quite commendable for our President himself to be leading the recent clean-up efforts, with help from the GDF and others. It sends a strong message that cleanliness is important. The PNC did the same when they won in 2015 but it was not sustained. Kudos to our First Lady, also, who has done remarkably well in various beautification projects. Ms. Arya gets the job done. Maybe give her Office a bigger allocation in the 2022 budget since she gets results.
It was quite sad there is a news report that said, “Mayor calls for boycott of city cleanup.” Isn’t that very, very sad if it is true? Guyana remains backward because of weak leadership that cannot come up with a sustainable solid waste disposal plan after 60 years. We do what I call “random acts of improvement” versus a “comprehensive, ongoing, systematic design and national plan for improvement and transformation.” Our politicians love to do “emergency” projects, not well-designed long-term plans, because they can make money bypassing Procurement Rules and Processes.
We have a love affair with garbage. We have “peaceful co-existence” with trash. I usually keep candy wrappers in my pocket until I can find a garbage can, but in Guyana, anywhere outside is our garbage can. Dr. Jagan’s shrine at Babu Jaan is a garbage dump area. No. 63 beach is a garbage dump. In my Whim Village, they are now dumping garbage right at the entrance of the burial ground. Same at Le Repentir, and everywhere in Guyana. What manner of people are we? Garbage everywhere is what keeps us in the “Third World” designation, but President Trump had that “s” word for countries like us.
So when the headline says, “Police presence, camera installation to tackle illegal dumping – President announces,” are we looking at root causes why we have such an enormous garbage problem? Why do people dump trash anywhere and everywhere? Apart from mindsets that tolerate trash that Guyanese develop from kindergarten in poor, decrepit schools and environments, we have not provided enough trash cans, or huge steel bins with hinged covers across our communities. There are not proper and deliberately created dumping sites in every village or a process for getting rid of solid waste. Concreted holding areas with sides can store garbage until NDC trucks or private providers can collect and take to the dumpsite several times a week. We need landfills or trash incinerators in every region. In countries in the European Union, incinerators are replacing landfills and generating energy in the process. Most of our NDCs do not provide ongoing, reliable trash removal services. Some villages have private contractors with open top trailers and trucks. These are not real garbage trucks and they leak dirty water oozing from the garbage. In those, the workers stand in the trash as the vehicles move around. Quite a primitive operation.
We need to efficiently, and systematically monitor if trash cans are filled and overflowing in high use areas or at special events, and empty those and put in new trash bags. In the USA, households get two bins – one for regular household trash and one for recycling items – plastics, paper, cardboard, bottles. Yard and construction waste, and electronics can be carried to the landfill, or holding stations. If every home and business can clean the ditch/areas in front of their property, that will be a big change. So Mr. President let’s go beyond random acts and fix waste disposal once and for all! Offer incentives to attract locals to get into the solid waste disposal business. Exempt all mowers from all taxes. Provide free trash bags. And find a new Mayor with lots of sense!
Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Jailall
