Foreigners see Guyana as the dirtiest

Oct 13, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
Most of my letters to you have to do with wrongdoings or things I want to see happen to better my country.
This year I took my vacation in Antigua and Barbuda. As usual, getting together and having conversation on what’s happening in Guyana and comparison to Antigua could hardly escape my many encounters. On one such encounter, I was told in the most embarrassing and shameful way that Guyana is the dirtiest nation in the Caribbean.
These remarks were made by both Antiguans and Guyanese emigrants. They lamented extensively of seeing garbage almost everywhere during their last visit to Guyana. They spoke of Guyanese eating and throwing food boxes out moving vehicles and anywhere in the streets. This was my most humiliating moment I could ever remember.
Three weeks ago, I met two Canadian visitors. I extended my hospitality by offering them a drive to Parika Stelling E.B E. Once again I was told that Guyana is the dirtiest country they have visited and will never return. On the way to Parika, they took the opportunity to point out plastic bottles and bags of garbage thrown on the parapet along the way.
In the vicinity of Tuschen EBE, there was a man with a wheelbarrow containing garbage and he emptied it into the trench. As we moved on further into Greenwich Park /Ruby, out came a rice tractor, spilling huge chunks of mud on the road. Yes! This is the Guyana we live in today.
Where I lived in Sea-view Cornelia Ida WCD, only four persons have garbage bins from Puran’s waste disposal. The rest of people throw their garbage at the seawall and in a nearby trench. It is disgusting to see little children defecating behind the seawall especially in the mornings.
There is a group of fishermen who would bring in and clean their fish and would leave the unwanted to rot and stink right on the seawall. The once lovely beach we had is now covered with old fridges, stoves, cloth and the whole “works”.
Editor, I visited several Caribbean countries and I must confess that indeed Guyana is the dirtiest of them all. This shame and disgrace must be squarely laid at the feet of our government. While in Antigua and Barbuda it was brought to my attention that the Antiguan government upgraded its environmental legislation, increased its plain close patrols and increased penalties.
I wrote on this subject last year. I am writing here this year. I will continue to highlight this national disgrace as long as your paper afford me the opportunity. Once this situation remains unchanged, I will write to international organizations such as the World Health Organization, Norway, and the ACB countries, just to name a few.
I will call on all right thinking Guyanese who have a sense of national pride to join me and to implore our government to do whatever it takes to reverse this stigma of being the dirties nation in the Caribbean.
Yours sincerely,
C. Woolford

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