Stop the abuse of the environment

May 05, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
Firstly, allow me to extend sincere congratulations to our President on achieving the UNEP Champion of the Earth Award. I hope that this desperate plea strikes a chord with His Excellency in realizing the absolute necessity for a change in legislation to combat this increasingly sickening crisis that Georgetown is facing.
As an environmentally aware youth, I cringe at the sight of the drains, gutters and canals in the city– the multitude of plastic bottles, Styrofoam boxes, plastic bags and other non-biodegradable substances.
This is a disgrace to our environment, and frankly an insult to the memory of the once Garden City. You may or may not accept that this is a significant factor in the cause of flooding in the city after rainfall, which not only inconveniences and sometimes even endangers the lives of our people with diseases, but also spells loss of livelihood and obstruction of daily lives.
Added to this, the clogging of our drainage system allows only for stagnant water, in which mosquitoes breed and have been recently wreaking havoc on city-dwellers at night.
Even more horrifying than the abuse of readily and cheaply available plastics that simply remain after single use in ever-expanding landfills, officially designated or not dumpsites, even empty or abandoned plots of land, it is the lack of care or concern of Guyanese to the fact that we are being buried alive in our own garbage.
This growing acceptance that littering is simply an element of Guyanese society is outright disrespectful to the sanctity of our surroundings, and offers no inclination to nationalism, patriotism or even just acknowledgement of a Guyanese pride, since people only litter because they feel no sense of personal ownership for the area they are spoiling.
It is revolting to walk through the streets of downtown Georgetown and observe garbage everywhere.
Despite efforts and clean-up campaigns by public spirited individuals to begin to address the problem, it is saddening to say that this approach is akin to placing a plaster on a gunshot wound.
The abysmal state that Georgetown has reached calls for no less than desperate measures; the approach we should be adopting is not who is going to pick it up, but how to prevent litter from even reaching the ground in the first place?
I put it to you, the Parliamentarians, the people we elect to represent our best interests that we are entitled to a clean environment. We should no longer be held hostage by the ignorance of people who actively or inactively plague our society with environmentally-unfriendly pollutants.
Forget measures to improve the Tourism industry, why bother to please foreigners? As Guyanese, we come first in deserving a clean, beautiful city.
I put it to you, our lawmakers, and the Guyanese society on a whole that it is now necessary to move past mere punishments and fines for littering, but to ban plastics entirely and enforce higher taxation on Styrofoam to attempt to bring some alleviation to this pandemic.
I understand that the initial response may be that this might be too draconian of an approach but enough is enough; Georgetown is reaching a saturation point. Forgive those who feel that it is retroactive to return to glass bottles, paper bags with purchase, and cardboard boxes instead of the Styrofoam, which contains styrene, a known carcinogen and neurotoxin that may penetrate food and drinks.
The argument that this may be more financially-costly of a venture is valid to the mercenaries, but to the Guyanese who are forced to build “Berlin Walls” around their homes to prevent flooding; who cannot enjoy an afternoon at the Seawalls without smelling and seeing garbage abound; answer me this: Which bears greater cost and ultimately greater value- our environment or a few dollars?
By taking this step to replace plastics with paper products, we are significantly reducing the availability of these non-biodegradable products that people feel so inclined to decorate our city with, and even more importantly, we, as Guyanese, are asserting what we think of ourselves and of the environment that we deserve and expect to live in.
For those who share my revulsion and wish to actively prove to Parliament that we stand not alone in our fight against the destruction of our city, please sign my petition available online at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/24/stop-the-use-of-plastics-and-styrofoam-in-guyana
Nadia Bulkan

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