City solid waste crisis ends

Dec 03, 2017 Consumer Concerns, Features / Columnists

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By PAT DIAL

Over the last several weeks, we have had a steady stream of complaints concerning the sporadic way in which citizens’ garbage had been removed. In the last week, the M &CC rubbish disposal system collapsed and garbage accumulated in the streets and rubbish bins everywhere were overflowing.
Parts of the City literally stank, especially in those areas where garbage had overflowed into the stagnant drains. There was an upsurge of swarms of flies and mosquitoes and citizens’ health was put at risk.
Her Worship the Mayor, herself, empathised with the discomfort of the citizens. She expressed her disgust at seeing garbage accumulations in various parts of the City and the very inadequate contractors whom officers at City Hall had employed to replace Puran Bros and Cevons.
These contractors were not performing to expected standards of efficiency and had open back trucks with highly offensive exposed garbage. Her Worship had been misinformed and misled by the Town Clerk and Solid Waste Director as to the enormity of the problem.
The Guyana Consumers Association tried to contact the Solid Waste Department of the Council and on Friday every one of their listed telephone numbers was tried several times of the day but no one answered. Eventually, we were able to contact the Town Clerk’s office but, as usual, the Town Clerk was not available. We, however spoke with the Deputy Town Clerk who told us that the Town Clerk was addressing the problem.
It was the belief of consumers with whom we spoke, that the problems of rubbish disposal in the City were self-created in several ways by certain officers of the Council. Puran Bros and Cevons had made great investments in acquiring modern garbage trucks, training and equipping staff and maintaining an efficient and reliable service.
They had also invested in movable toilets and septic tank cleaning equipment. At great sacrifice to themselves, they accorded M&CC generous credit. Indeed, they became household names in Georgetown.
The City Hall Administration made little or no effort to pay off the approximately $475.millions debt they owed these Contractors who were not large companies and could not indefinitely bear this burden. To save themselves from going in the direction of bankruptcy, they were compelled to temporarily withdraw their services.
The Mayor and many citizens realised that the only immediate relief to the problem was to urgently solicit the help of the Central Government in paying the Contractors so that they could resume work. The Mayor personally approached Ministers of Government.
The Town Clerk opposed the Mayor’s position and tried to negate the Central Government’s bailout, claiming it would detract from the autonomy of the Council despite no effort was being made to pay Puran Bros and Cevons and the fact that over the years, the Central Government had financially bailed out the City.
Another source of opposition to the bailout and having the City immediately cleaned was the Solid Waste Director. The Mayor bitterly complained that she was misled by this official and that she would pay no further cognizance to him on this issue.
The Solid Waste Director seemed more concerned with reducing the work Puran Bros and Cevons did and handing it over to two or three small contractors who were not properly equipped, whose trucks were fairly aged and mostly open backed spewing their stench in the city streets and who could not accord credit to the Council. The Solid Waste Director seemed more concerned with engaging the “smaller contractors” than having the City regularly and efficiently cleaned.
News has just come that the Central Government has provided the funds to pay Cevons and Puran Bros and that they will immediately resume work. Georgetown now feels a sense of relief.
Both M&CC and the citizens should take measures to ensure that such a garbage crisis does not again occur in Georgetown: The City Administration must honour their obligations to the two Contractors. The Town Clerk felt confident that the City could pay its way and wished to reject the Central Government’s bailout and funds were found to pay the “small contractors” millions of dollars.
Cevons and Puran Bros could therefore now look forward to being paid on a regular basis.
Secondly, the Council itself should again begin to do some cleaning of the City as used to be done in the past. The ethic must again be cultivated that the City’s employees’ primary concern should be to serve the City and not merely to collect their pay cheques.
Thirdly, smaller contractors should be encouraged to invest in acquiring better equipment and to cultivate efficiency and reliability. They could be given special jobs by the Council once they reach the required standards. Such “small contractors” could also be employed by the Regional Administrations.

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