City Council blames errant contractor and human resource shortage for garbage build up

The Georgetown City Council through its Solid Waste Management Department, is working with a number of waste disposal companies to tackle the build-up of garbage in the city’s commercial district and within a number of communities.

In the past few weeks, residents across several wards of the city have been complaining about the build up of garbage and the absence of garbage collection.

At a press conference today, City Mayor Alfred Mentore laid blame for the situation at the feet of one garbage disposal company contracted by the municipality.

He said in addition to the errant contractor, the inclement weather has posed significant challenges at the Haags Bosch Sanitary Landfill for dump trucks traversing the site.

On the issue of the contractor, Mayor Mentore disclosed that Guyana Waste Solutions Inc, which is responsible for five constituencies including the commercial district, has been failing to meet its contractual obligations for the past three weeks due to a number of challenges in man power.

“The contractor is Guyana Waste Solutions, who have been having human resource problem. He has problems with drivers, he has problems with general staffing. To some extent his trucks have issues. But he has been the one, who is most culpable, and is probably one of the reasons we are here today,” the Mayor said.

He said the Council is expected to meet on Monday, and tough decisions will have to be made regarding the contracted company, which he said, has developed a track record of not fulfilling its contractual obligations.

“This contractor has not been giving us the kind of results, not only in the city here but also in East La Penitence, West La Penitence, Albouystown, all the areas that he has work, he has been having some challenges and the reason for us having this meeting today is to be able to address the issue and let the people know that we are paying handsomely to get these jobs done and we are paying contractors to do a job and we have our own department that does certain areas, Kitty and Cummings Lodge that we deal with but we are paying people to do a job and we expect the results, and if we are not going to get the results, we will have to take serious steps and make certain decisions at the next statutory meeting,” the Mayor said.

The City’s Solid Waste Management Director, Walter Narine explained that in addition to Guyana Waste Solutions Inc, the Municipality has contractual arrangements with three other contractors – Cevons Waste Management, Sand-Dip Disposal Services and Puran Brothers – which are responsible for a total of 12 constituencies, while the Solid Waste Management Department is responsible for three of the 15 constituencies.

He said the inclement weather has posed significant challenges for the dump trucks due to a build-up of water at the landfill site.

“Now the pit, the cell, where you dispose the garbage in, it became very muddy, so when the trucks get in there, you can’t see the wheels anymore, when they go in with the garbage, so when they dispose the garbage and they come out, the majority of the time, they are coming out with punctured tyres because we don’t know what is at the bottom there, and sometimes the trucks get stuck and they have to get an excavator to stop the work to push them out. So, this challenge, we have experienced that, and this is not something new,” Narine said.

Narine also complained about businesses in the commercial zone continuing to dispose of their garbage improperly.

“The commercial area wasn’t so affected, it was only four days, four days of non-collection, and what you saw there is actually how the business people dispose of their garbage. If you take a walk down Regent Street and you ask any of the business people, you would probably have 5% of them have waste receptacles. Every day they just take out the garbage, however they accumulate it and they dump it on the road, and that is something we can’t accept any more,” the Waste Disposal Management Director explained.

Narine said due to all the development taking place within the city, including a rapidly growing population, there is a need for added financial assistance and human resources. (Svetlana Marshall)