Guyana; dwindling population, increasing garage

Aug 06, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
The Guyana Government is finding it necessary to create three or more garbage dump sites, around the country. What at first is surprising; Guyana has a dwindling population, yet the volume of garbage is significantly increasing. This situation took my mind back to the time when I first started teaching in South Florida. On my first day at school, students would ask me what I thought of Florida, as kids would do.
I mentioned how flat it was and they would respond that I ought to go see Trash Mountain. It was the highest part of South Florida, they said. I took their advice, one day, and drove north on Dixie Highway, looking on my left as I was instructed, until I came to this very high mound of garbage. Over a hundred feet high! It was called Trash Mountain, and locals – with tongue firmly in cheek- would tell you that it was a natural wonder of the world. Some twenty-five years later, Florida is probably now inundated with trash mountains, I’m sure, while surrounded on three sides by water.
Which brings me to the topic of ‘trash mountains’, in Guyana. Guyana’s ground water is as deep as the digging big toe, of a twelve-year old boy, which means decomposing organic and inorganic material would not have to travel very deep, to enter the ground water. This means very harmful environmental consequences are going to be felt, in far less time, than Global Warming, even though our former President Bharat Jagdeo, possibly in a fit of environmental giddiness, blamed the rainstorms of 2005, on that mercurial phenomenon, and became the environmental doyen ofUN Ambassador Ban Ki Moon. (I wonder whatever happened to the results of that environmental plenary session, which Dr. Jagdeo chaired, some two years ago).
I have noticed that the present APNU/AFC Government is planning to spend resources in preparation for the incoming ‘holocaust’ that is predicted by many scientist, even though its initial consequences may not affect Guyana. I would strongly like to suggest that some of those monies be diverted to, or funds be allocated for creating complete recycling plants, which would also create many jobs, as well as preserving a healthy environment. The picture below is a more complex but highly efficient approach to eliminating garbage.
Albert R. Cumberbatch, Ph. D. (Author/Environmentalist

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