What will it take for the garbage issues in Georgetown and other parts of the country to be resolved? Is it that we are incapable of keeping our environment clean? Is it that the people are irresponsible? Why are many not thinking about how their behaviours today can impact the future?
If we look at the last two decades, we will see many reports about monies owed to the Mayor and City Council or the Mayor and City Council owing monies. There seems to always be financial issues affecting the Mayor and City Council. We portray ourselves in many aspects as a mentally unstable nation by doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. All the cleanup campaigns over the years, educating the public about proper garbage disposal and even programmes targeting our youth have not resulted in a cleaner country.
In many communities, people step out of their clean homes to breathe stench filled air emanating from overflowing bins, heaps of garbage along the streets, flies, worms, dogs, and rodents having their way. Often even the mentally ill can be seen rummaging in the garbage. How are we to conclude that Guyana is not some space where returned souls are sent to pass a test of endurance?
For more than a week, overflowing garbage bins have been sitting in many streets throughout Georgetown. From some reports, some communities do not see the garbage collectors for as much as two weeks. Usually where I live the garbage is picked up twice a week, but for over a week the garbage collectors have not been seen.
Garbage collectors are people I respect. They do their part in our attempts to recreate a garden city and they deserve not only to be properly compensated but the support of the communities they serve.
I searched for news about the Mayor and City Council. Perhaps once again millions of dollars are owed to garbage collectors and is the reason for the garbage sitting in the streets for more than a week, but I did not see any current reports. What I did see was a report earlier this month about the Mayor and City Council owing the Guyana Revenue Authority millions of unremitted Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and another report from August which said that the Mayor and City Council had begun payments to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) after 28 years.
It is unacceptable that many Guyanese are not only grappling with the rising cost of living, but even if people are living in fancy houses in residential areas, the issue of solid waste management continues to be an issue.
As citizens it is imperative that we take responsibility. We must find ways to reduce the garbage. There are many items we dispose that can be made into compost for example. Vegetables and fruits scraps, eggshells, grass, and leaves are some. Composting can also be a way to encourage more Guyanese to enrich the soil and plant or start a composting business.
We must move towards largely recycling as a country. In the past when I enquired about why recycling is not being done on a large scale in Guyana, I was told it would not be profitable because we do not have a large enough population. But we can start somewhere. In places like the United States there are bins for different purposes. Green bins for food waste and other organic materials, blue bins for items that can be recycled, such as bottles, cans and plastics and gray bins for inorganic materials. Separating our waste will not only make it easier for our garbage collectors but perhaps will encourage more of our citizens to be conscious about what they are disposing, how they are disposing it and alternative options, such as composting, recycling, and reusing items.
There was an education campaign targeting schools called the Green Generation Project. The project was launched in 2016 by the then Ministry of Communities and sought to educate children about proper waste management. Several sessions were done with schools around the country where children were encouraged to recycle and reuse. They were taught about the different types of waste and there were separate bins in those schools for organic and inorganic waste. There is hope when we target the youth but looking around Georgetown our issues with waste management are far from being permanently resolved.
How are we encouraging tourists to come to our country when we can have garbage bins overflowing and sitting for days in our streets? We clean up the city when presidents from other countries are visiting or other prominent people, but why can’t we maintain it for ourselves? Keeping our country clean should be for us. Why is it so easy for people to dump their garbage in public with no thought about how it affects the society?
The Seawall is a place I like to frequent and every time I walk along there I see hundreds or perhaps thousands of plastic bottles, food boxes, chicken buckets and other items are strewn along the wall. But perhaps blaming it on the high tides is easier. Many of the people who enjoy the Seawall do not care about the cleanliness of it. I recall some weeks ago seeing a report where a volunteer who cleans the Seawall asked a radio announcer to remind the people to not litter the area and the radio announcer’s response was that if people do not litter the volunteers would have no work to do. Every day we see symptoms of diseases of the mind.
While perhaps having bins all along the Seawall will help, some people just do not care. They fete, eat, and dispose their garbage all in the same place and some of these same people believe that they are decent human beings.
I believe people litter also because there seems to be no strict measures to prosecute people caught littering. Even if garbage bins are not available when we are in public, we can make it a practice to walk with small bags to store our garbage and either take it home or wait until we see a bin to dump it.
Keeping Guyana clean is not an impossible task. But as aforementioned it starts with citizens making the decision to reduce, recycle and reuse. How can we call ourselves a country progressing, with the fastest growing economy in this part of the world and natural resources rich, but still chances are when people step out of their homes, they step into garbage in the streets.
We all know the saying “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”
It is not only about being of a clean heart and sincere spirit which can lead to higher vibrations in connecting with the Divine, but the way we keep our environment, which also reflects who we are. So, what conclusions can we have about ourselves based on what we see around the country?
