Garbage, results, great anxieties

Apr 27, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

Hard Truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – Media reports are of the Haags Bosh dumpsite running out of room. I mosey along the capital city and other less prominent places and there are dumpsites that have been made of many spots in and around them. Where there are people, there will be trash and refuse. It is what citizens refuse to do with both, how they trash the environment. Illegal is regular. Illegal dumping the automatic reflex of a culture gone haywire, and I think loving it to some extent. When the willful negligence and chronic indifference are combined, there are many mini Haags Bosh dumpsites in countless places, with the ones in Georgetown attracting the most attention and commentary. The wrong kind. That goes as far as it goes and for as long as it has gas in the tank, until the next distressing situation steps into sight. The trouble for me is what is founded in the illegal and uncaring dumping of garbage wherever pleases us. If I may be allowed the presumptuousness, it should also be for all Guyanese who still have some class and concern in them to think of things other than money and defending cult leaders.

GHK Lall

I launch the good news first. For a solid several months now, approaching close to a year, the City Council trucks have been like clockwork. On schedule and emptying and hauling away the previous week’s accumulated store of waste, the detritus of modern life and civilization. I shall spare citizens some of what have been observed, absorbed with stoic expression. Difficult is a mild word. But, a word of thanks is due to the Mayor, Sanitation Director, and those men on the trucks doing a thankless job: removing what we refuse, and which ranges from the rotted to the rank to the roiling to the repulsive. By way of exception, the long container truck of Guyanese politicians has been left behind, are still in the neighbourhood in their olfactory glory. I digressed but had to do duty to the people.

Now for the bad news. Prior to the news about the Haags Bosh dumpsite running out of legroom, there were some other news accompanied by pictures. Illegal dumping here, casual disposal over there. Unthinking and unheeding depositing almost everywhere. The priority is to just get rid of the damn thing any damn place. Who cares? Why agitate one’s spirit about what is a regular state of affairs, the norm? I slap myself on the side of the head because I care. I care about this capital city that is the prime oil destination of the world. This means that by default this capital city of ours is a tourist attraction. Alright, if that is too heavy, then try this: it is an accidental business stopover, flyover, crossover point. I don’t think that we have commenced helicoptering foreigners from Timehri to town, yet. But there are all those illegal and insidious citizens declared dumpsites dotting the damn place everywhere that one turns. Americana in Guyana’s wasteland (KFC). Europe returning and taking over (Heineken), and China making inroads (tires and everything else). If it is not food, it is filth; if it is not what is sick, it is what is and will get Guyanese sick. It is what I meant by insidious citizens declared dumpsites. The treacherous houses the dangerous. Georgetown, the once and future Garden City is threatening to mutate into Georgetown, the sick bay and charnel house.

Disease is the first word. Ever behold the rats running around to rummage for a slice of the illegal dumping action? Think of how many of them have been seen and the massive nature of their physique. Notice the swarms of flies and mosquitoes and insects buzzing about and latching onto anything in sight with pestiferous persistence? The devastation of dengue and much more I rush to point out. Read those reports. Listen to the news. Watch the anguished parents’ relatives. And when the garbage is near to water and the pools form, then I don’t think that I need to say that the indifference of each one of us is gambling with fire. On another note, the wind has been erratic, as in present and absent, but when it does stir and get around to doing its business, there is the alarm of what it spreads. Oh Lord… Then, I collided with that article about Saharan dust heading here. Blimey! What business does, can, the Sahara ever want with sleepy Guyana? Correction, rising Guyana. Allergies are all the rage and should anyone want to write a PhD dissertation about that, come to me for a free tutorial.

To its credit, Central Government (PPP) has been busy spraying and defogging. The grass has been cleared fairly frequently, and I don’t believe that is the handiwork of the PNC Government (Local). Now, and selfishness is admitted, I am going to push my luck. Please initiate clearing the drains. Unclogging the flotsam and jetsam that Guyanese discard willy-nilly, be they residents or the rogues of business. Jail reckless citizens. Politicians included. The unhealthy can be deadly. The unseeming is unbecoming. Think of all those foreigners oohing and aahing in GT.

Haags Bosh is out there and out of sight. Georgetown is right here and right in the sight (and under the noses) of those who dare to traverse its thoroughfares and boulevards and magical capital places. After all, it is the capital city, and the national standard must begin right here. It is the Garden City and germs don’t belong here or anywhere else.

One more, please stop dumping.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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