Cleaning Georgetown

Aug 18, 2024 Letters

Dear Editor,

Reference is made to the public notice on the subject of Citizens being urged to get involved in a cleanup exercise (SN 8-16-2024). While this is a positive effort to solve a serious problem in cleaning public spaces, this is not a permanent solution; for a cleanup project, owned collectively by a community, is just a one-off event that is not sustainable. Instead, cleaning of a publicly owned space that everyone enjoys is a programmed and managed event that is bookmarked on the local government calendar to occur either weekly, monthly, quarterly, or semi-annually.

While growing up in Georgetown, I recall seeing City Council employees who came once per week to cut the grass on the adjacent sidewalk; other employees collected the garbage and transported it to ‘old smokie’; while other employees cleaned and flushed-out the gutters and drains by opening the water hydrants connected to the water system managed by the GS&WC. The GS&WC also managed and maintained the sewage system, clearing blockages and repairing broken pipes. When it rained, there was no flooding; for the water entered the concrete drains, and into the canals around Georgetown, where it was temporarily stored until the kokers were opened, emptying the water into the Demerara River. I remember catching fish in the drains, something that is not known by the young people in Georgetown today.

The canals around Georgetown were free of weeds and the forty-feet trench was a place where young boys learned to swim before the Luckhoo swimming pool, owned by the City Council, was built. There were employees from the Ministry of Health who sprayed the environment for flies and mosquitos and other insects, and there was a follow-up inspection by the inspector. The Markets, along with the Botanic and Small Gardens and Sea Wall Band Stand were cleaned. Funding for these public activities came from local taxes collected by the Georgetown City Council and most likely the Central Government.

The proposed cleanup projects of public spaces (e.g. the Seawall, street cleaning around Georgetown) that are based on volunteers providing free labor services are not sustainable. Rather, this is the work of the Government, whose job is to provide public goods and services using taxpayers’ money to hire workers, provide equipment, cleaning material and transportation services for the disposal of the garbage. It would be useful if a record could be made of the citizens who volunteered for the proposed cleanup campaign. These citizens should be rewarded.

Sincerely,

Dr. C. Kenrick Hunte

Professor and Former Ambassador

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Dr. C. Kenrick Hunte, employees, Georgetown, Professor and Former Ambassador, subject

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