BRING BACK THE BRITISH MANUALS

Jun 05, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The Mayor and City Council of Georgetown along with the Ministry of public works has been engaged in an exercise aimed at improving the drainage and outlook of the city of Georgetown. Yet the same mistakes that have been made in the past are being repeated. As part of the activities being undertaken is the de-silting of major drains in the city. Yet within days of these drains being de-silted by machinery, weeds are overrunning them.

The problem with the weeds some time ago attracted a comment from the Mayor who said that a University of Guyana student had proposed a solution, which he was examining. We have not since heard anything about this plan to rid the city’s drains of excessive aquatic growth.
The Mayor should, however, recall the colonial days when this weed growth was not a problem. And the reason why it was not a problem was because our colonial masters understood a critical element in managing a city. They understood the importance of maintenance.
It would seem that when the British left, they took with them the maintenance manuals because as we know, one the downfalls of the PNC Government which has been copied by the ruling PPP administration, is the lack of adequate maintenance in all aspects of life but particularly when it comes to the local government system.

The British understood the importance of keeping the drains clean and running. They understood the critical value played by the rate of runoff of waters within the drainage system. This is why particularly the primary canals were always kept clean and deep enough to hold water until it could be drained through the outfall.
They also understood the importance of preventing aquatic growth. They did not need any university student to advise them on how to prevent this problem. They simply employed practices that had long been practised in Guyana. One was what was known as “edging” the sides of the canal.
Now what is “edging”? It simply entails regular cutting of the sides of drains since it has long been established that most weeds, while rooting on the bed of canals, actually originate from the sides of the drain and grow inwards. Thus by regularly clipping the edges of all canals, aquatic growth was significantly reduced.

I am sure that an examination of those drainage canals within the city which has been cleared would reveal once again an increase in aquatic growth and the reason for this is that, while the canals have been de-silted with heavy duty machinery, no attempt has been made to send someone either with a gasoline-powered edger or with a cutlass to trim the edges of the drains to prevent the growth of weeds.
One of the reasons why edging is not widespread as before, is because of the decline in manpower over the years. There used to be a time when the City Council of Georgetown employed a great many workers. It still does but certainly when it comes to workers deployed to clean and maintain drains, the preference is for these works to be given out to contract workers rather than to have fulltime employees deployed to individual wards on a permanent basis to carry out twice weekly maintenance of the drainage system.

I am sure that employing hundreds of workers will cost a fortune to the council, something that it cannot afford. The fact, however, is that in the long run it would be much cheaper if and when major cleaning works are undertaken, that it is accompanied by weekly maintenance by an assigned crew. If this is seen as too challenging a task for the city, it should revert back to the old manuals, which must still be located on some dusty shelf within City Hall. Those manuals should be dusted out and brought back to life. So too should be a very useful booklet which was published many years ago and which advises on various methods of valuation of property within the city.
While the British did take a great deal with them when they left Guyana, they also left a great deal behind. We need to set aside fickle nationalistic pride and revisit those principles, which our former colonial masters acquired over centuries and which today are still relevant.