Pit latrines, somebody should take up residence in them 

Sep 24, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – Warm congratulations are extended to the Ministry of Education specifically, and the Guyana Government in general, for keeping what must be one of the best kept secrets in Guyana under wraps.  Considering that pit latrines are involved, it is also a deep secret with stench to match.  After the revelation and abomination of 77 of these monuments to Guyanese governance and leadership, if both have any scrap of self-respect left, there would be taking up residence in those 77 pit latrines.  Here it is that there are these boisterous speeches about billions spent on education, and in this 21^st century, Guyanese children [and teacher also?] are forced to make do with 77 pit latrines.  Some of those should be dug up from the bottom and transported to Brickdam, Georgetown and re-erected in the Ministry of Education’s main office.  The front entrance is the best location.

In another country, and given the money spent, the responsible and honorable thing to do, would be to resign.  But Guyana functions on a different kind of fuel, so that is not going to happen.  The president, however, should roll some heads, with candidates located in the Ministry of Education head office (and right by his elbow) and at the regional level.  If there is something encouraging about this pit latrine development with the number 77 tied to it is that there was the rare honesty to say that they exist and that the number of them is this many.  If memory serves correctly, when this issue about pit latrines first surfaced, there was the usual outraged huffing and puffing and flouncing.  Now that the dust has settled and a little truth has prevailed, the money should be found to get rid of each of them, all 77 of them, in the shortest order.  How long is it going to take to demolish 77 of such pit latrines and replace them with modern structures that are safe and sanitary?  While the government people are at it, those facilities that may not have made the cut into the pit latrine category and are considered borderline (whatever form they take) should also be torn down and replaced in the fastest time.  This is more than any people who consider themselves civilized and possess some trace of national pride should take.  The world is rightly raving about Guyana, and there is this deplorable situation, this ugly reality, of pit latrines in operation and in such a quantity.

There is anticipation that nobody is going to shoulder any blame for this appalling condition with which some of Guyana’s children live for most of their waking hours.  There would be little surprise if the PPP points a fist at the PNC, with the latter returning the favor with the speed of a Mohamed Ali jab.  Of course, none of that does anything to remove one pit latrine, but it does allow the disowning of responsibility, and the reciprocal shoveling of s**t at the other group.  In the context of almost four score pit latrines, there is more than enough of that excreted stuff to pelt around.  The liquids expelled should help to lubricate the usual useless political wranglings.  Did somebody raise their hand and say that it is time for a new third party or two, maybe the usual dozen, in the next 12 months?

On a more immediate and practical note, those pit latrines must go, and they must go now, all 77 of them.  They are around one day longer than necessary and that only adds more insult to the already accumulated pile of injuries.  The thinking, the hope really, is that there is some linkage that allows connection of a steady supply of water for the obvious purposes.  It would make no sense, more a matter of a six for a nine, if these pit latrines were replaced with modern facilities that lack the steady water pressure that makes them work as they should.  For then, what would Guyanese children have, be left staring at, in what they leave behind, and what greets them?  From the record, it seems that Guyanese officials at different levels, have cultivated great skill in making bright and sweet speeches, but somehow lack either the energy or the interest to follow-up and see what was promised all the way to the end.  Truth be told, there are a bundle of politically sexier issues to be prioritized than what kind of toilets the children have in schools.  It is the usual culture: put on the brightest, most attractive paint on the face, and don’t worry too much about the smells that come out of the other parts of the system.

People must grow up in this country, which is no longer that of grandmothers of old.  From the head of state to the head of ministries, to the opposition heads, this growth must be of a mentality that Guyana can be a Rolls-Royce engine, without the equivalent of a pit latrine exhaust.  It had better be on both counts, or else this business about education is the key to national movement will have another meaning.  One that gives a key to access those pit latrines and a similar level of facilities, mental and physical, involving other departments of life in Guyana.

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

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• GHK Lall, Government, Guyana, Ministry of Education, residence

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