The Georgetown Mayor and City Council has initiated a three-day clean-up and restoration campaign at the Bourda Market, as it moves to address the build up of solid waste in the area, in addition to the clogged drains and a poor sewage system.
The initiative has put a pause to vending on Robb Street between Alexander Street and Orange Walk.
Mayor of Georgetown, Alfred Mentore, Deputy Mayor, Denise Miller and other Councilors, visited the area on Monday after a number of makeshift structures were dismantled earlier in the day under the supervision of the City’s Town Clerk, Candace Nelson.
The Mayor told News Source that the area had reached a crisis point, with the clogged drains and a poor sewage system both posing serious health and environmental hazards for vendors and their customers.
“We believe that the place was not as clean as it should. There are a number of issues concerning the sewage that we had to treat with; there are a number of issues concerning the water and the drainage, that we obviously had to address; and we weren’t able to do that because the vendors were blocking these particular access [points], and were over the drains. So, we decided to take a decision at the level of the Council to address, and to clean up this place once and for all,” the Mayor said.
Together with the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), the Council is also working to address the sewage system, even as it moves to clear the clogged drains.
Mayor Mentore said while a number of vendors may not be able to vend for the next three days or more, they must consider their health.
“Sometimes we got to stop prioritizing economics over health. Even though we might say three days, it could be six days, it could be a week a little bit more,” he said.
He said affected vendors will be able to return to the location under strict conditions, until they are permanently relocated to the Merriman’s Mall. The vendors will be required to use collapsible tents and tables in order to vend. Permanent structures will not be allowed.
“Ideally, these makeshift tents and pallets, and you know, we have always been deemed a pallet city, and we have been trying as a council to remove pallets all along Regent Street, all along Robb Street, and all along a number of places, so that we can have these drains covered with sheet metals. The pallets is something we want to dismantle and not have in our system but we will continuously work to address those issues. What we know for sure is that persons who would come back and vend here, we will have collapsible things that we will design that they will have to use, so whenever they move from here to some other location, sometime from now, they will be able to take them as well. But our intention is to have things that are more appropriate for people to vend,” the Mayor said.
He said while the Council supports vending, but it must be done in a clean and healthy environment.
Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor Denise Miller told News Source that the vendors were consulted more than a month ago on the clean-up campaign.
“We had consultations with them where we met with them at Bourda Market about a month ago, and so it is something that they too would have discussed, because vendors themselves, some of them were concerned about not only the imagine but the health. Outside of that, we have seen extensive flooding in the alley ways and then we recognize that the water is now onto the road and the pavement. So, after talking with them and we recognize the seriousness, and the contamination, food contamination, because if the water can’t flow…vegetables and fruits are being contaminated. So, as a council we decided we have to take sometime and look, as the mayor said, the health of the nation,” the Deputy Mayor said.
The City Council has indicated that other market locations around the city will be targeted for a similar exercise soon.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login