Garbage pile-up hits Guyana
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| Published on Monday, September 21, 2009 |
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GEORGETOWN, Guyana -- The Guyana government held talks with City Hall, excluding Mayor Hamilton Green, on Saturday as Guyana’s capital Georgetown has been overflowing with garbage for the past month after the city administration says it is “penniless and cannot pay contractors to remove the waste."
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| Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo. AFP PHOTO |
This is according to President Bharrat Jagdeo who told reporters Friday evening that he will see what assistance can be given to the municipality “again” to ensure the well being of citizens in Georgetown.
He made it clear that Saturday's talks would not include Mayor Hamilton Green. “He is from a different era and clearly I’m not working with him,” the President said adding that the problems at the city has to do with management
"Anyone who uses as little as one percent of their brain would recognize that most of the problems in the city have to do with lack of leadership, efficiency and accountability there,” the president said.
Jagdeo said he was aware of the problem facing the city adding that Green has been casting blame at the government stating that he is starved of funds.
Questioned on whether he is in support of an IMC for Georgetown, the Head of State said he thought “it would be a good idea for an interim management committee be established where decent citizens can take over the management of the city. They don’t have to be political persons and they would collaborate more in a decent fashion rather than siphoning half of the money. You can ask Corbin. If Corbin is interested in it, we’ll put it in tomorrow. I am in favour of it.”
Jagdeo also took a swipe at the mayor in his comments. He added that what the council has purportedly done did not tally with the money that the government has spent in the city. “Every year we fix all of the roads in city to the cost of billions of dollars. We bought pumps and transferred them to the city; we have paid for drainage and irrigation in the city and hired hundreds of workers for drainage and irrigation works in the city; we have also paid for the dumpsite and we are spending some US$10 million on creating a new dumpsite."
Meanwhile, the municipality in a press statement said it has managed to raise one month’s pay for the contractors who it owes.
It was noted the council is continuing to use its limited resources to collect garbage from the central business and other city areas. On Friday, rubbish was removed from the central business areas including around Wellington, Robb, Camp, Carmichael, Waterloo, High and Alexander streets, and many other areas around Georgetown.
The release from the council stated that they have sought the assistance of the private sector to provide equipment and other resources to support the council’s effort, particularly in the central business areas. | | | | Reads : 1002 | | | |
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