THE MOTION THAT WILL DIE A NATURAL DEATH

May 04, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The National Assembly has passed a resolution with the support of the ruling party and government, calling for the restoration of Georgetown. But it will take more than just a resolution for any effort to be commenced to bring back some order to the capital city.
There are four things that are needed if the preconditions that must be in place before any work commences. Unless these four minimal conditions exist, it is useless even trying to dream about a restored capital city much less commence.
It is no use commencing any plans for the restoration of Georgetown unless these things are fixed because it will amount to pouring money and effort down the drain, just like what happened with Le Repentir, cemetery.
A few years ago there was a big hue and cry about the state of the cemetery, one of the biggest if not the biggest, in the English-speaking Caribbean. The once well-kept cemetery was allowed by the Georgetown City Council to turn into a jungle.
And so there were calls for something to be done. Interestingly most of the calls were directed towards the government as if it was the responsibility of the government to keep the cemetery clean. As if the government was collecting the burial fees for persons who were interred in this cemetery.
The government did respond and cleared the cemetery of the heavy, jungle-like overgrowth. Fingers were crossed that the Georgetown City Council would take things from there and avoid a reoccurrence. But that was asking too much.
The cemetery today, despite the millions of dollars injected by the government to assist in clearing the burial grounds, has returned to the jungle. This is just one example why unless certain fundamental issues are fixed, it makes no sense spending any money to restore Georgetown.
The first thing that must be fixed is illegal vending. There has to be an end to illegal vending. The Council itself has accepted that vendors generate a considerable amount of garbage and therefore, unless vending is fixed, it makes no sense even trying to deal with the garbage. It is hard to walk freely in certain parts of the city because of the encroachment by vendors and therefore if Georgetown is going to be restored it has to be restored to a pre-illegal vending state.
The second precondition has to be the removal of squatting on state reserve, parapets. Georgetown is sitting on a potential epidemic. The risk of an outbreak of cholera is a real possibility because many squatters are disposing of their feces in canals which have become stagnant.
In fact, the stagnation in many of these canals has been caused by fecal matter encouraging the growth of weeds which has restricted the flow and caused increased sedimentation.
Unless squatting ends, there will continue to be a real possibility of an eventual outbreak of cholera because the canals run along human settlements and some pipelines run over some of these canals. Georgetown is also heavily populated and if there is such an outbreak, thousands of persons in Georgetown are going to fare the worst.
The third precondition is a return to zoning. The Central Housing and Planning Authority has been the main culprit here. Lacking a real understanding, or at least seemingly so. of how Georgetown developed and how cities are supposed to be ordered, a number of traditional housing areas have been converted into disorganized wards in which businesses have been allowed to be erected willy nilly.
There seems to be little effort to stop this sort of commercial sprawl and it has spread to areas such as Queenstown. Fortunately, residents in some areas have decided to challenge some of these developments but it will require the rezoning of the entire city before any order can be restored.
Finally, the most important change that is needed is a revamp of the Georgetown City Council.  It would be inexplicable for citizens to support the restoration of the city if it continues to be administered by the same body that has overseen its demise.
No restoration effort will be taken seriously or will it be successful un less there is new administrative body to manage the process and quite honestly unless there is a political agreement allowing for a non-partisan group to take over City Hall, it makes no sense even beginning to even think about restoring Georgetown.
The private sector is not going to throw money down the drain unless there is change at this level and the government is not going to do the same unless there is a change of the guard at Town Hall.
Unfortunately, there is no political will to do any of the four things and therefore the motion to restore Georgetown will not see the light of day, ever. Like the once vaunted capital city, it will die a natural death.

 

 

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