The garbage debacle

Jun 22, 2010 Editorial

There is a growing concern over the garbage situation in the city, which seems incapable of managing the garbage that accumulates around the municipal markets and by the various homes in the city. The volume of garbage is vast.
Before the city expanded to include parts of lower East Bank Demerara and lower East Coast Demerara, the city council had its own garbage disposal unit comprising garbage trucks and a solid waste department. Each truck was assigned to an area and everyone was happy.
There was no landfill site so the garbage collected was burnt at the city incinerator called Old Smokey. The inconvenience stemmed from the smoke that billowed over south Georgetown and left the area with a most unforgiving smell.
In the end, the municipality solid waste management slipped to nothingness but the council was certain that it could afford to hire contractors.
Today it is finding with alarming regularity that it cannot pay its contractors with the result that the citizens are repeatedly faced with the threat of garbage piles in every corner of the city.
Just a few weeks ago, City Hall presented a budget that not only detailed its expenditure, but also its revenue collection. Budgets are always revenue neutral; the expenditure must be equal to the revenue collection.
The garbage collectors were included in the expenditure so it is rather alarming that with more than half of a year to go the council cannot pay the collectors.
In the past, when the collectors struck, it took no more than three or four days for the effects to be felt. Immediately, the government, recognising that visitors to the country would be confronted with garbage piles, moved to advance money to the council.
Things went well but some situations are just recurring and garbage collection is just one of them.
City Hall must be serious about its revenue base. For too long we have been hearing about the humanitarian nature of the council and its reluctance to deprive people of their property for rates and taxes.
But by refusing to collect monies owed to it by those who do not pay their dues to the council the council is sending the message that there are those who must pay for others.
In the electricity system this is exactly the case and the power company is making no bones about telling the nation that those who pay are in fact paying for those who steal power and who do not pay for electricity.
Garbage collection is not like electricity. There are alternatives to electricity power but when garbage piles up around us there are serious consequences, not least among them, the diseases; rat infestation, roach infestation and so many other pests that thrive in garbage.
City Hall has a duty to provide a service to the people who pay their dues to the council and this latest threat by the garbage collectors is going to put a strain—a most unnecessary strain—on people who pay for the service of having their household waste removed and disposed of.
The council makes bold to say that there are those who do not pay. This time around the council says that it has moved to the courts, despite the fact that everyone knows that the courts are slow, and that it could be as long as ten years before a decision could be taken.
It is also taking other actions but in this country we all know that some of the guilty people have relatives within the council and are going to be protected.
However, the reality is that the garbage collectors have withdrawn their service and by the end of today the piles would begin to appear. The stench would follow a few days later.
We expect that what has been happening all the time will happen. The council owes the garbage collectors $75 million. The government is going to step in once more because it will be among those affected.

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The garbage debacle

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