The Le Repentir Cemetery is the only place in the world one can buy a piece of real estate and after paying for the purchase, in this case $3000, the purchaser has no further legal obligation to maintain it.
The City Council then has the obligation of maintaining the area where the piece of real estate is located by ensuring the drainage works properly, the trees are trimmed, the grass cut, the area is properly lighted and fenced and the tombs are in proper order. It also has the responsibility of providing the labour force to carry out these tasks.
That, City Engineer Cephas James says, is the dimension of the problem City Hall faces in maintaining the cemetery at a level which is pleasing to eye and affordable. Another aspect of the problem, according to James, is that the roads and drains in the cemetery have to compete for the resources of the city with those outside of the cemetery. He says they come off second best because the residents of the cemetery cannot protest in a manner that attracts the attention of the politicians as the residents in other parts of the city can.
The cemetery extends from Mandela Avenue in the east to St Stephens Street in the west and is bounded on the north by Princess Street and on the south by Sussex Street.
Mayor Hamilton Green, however, believes that the cemetery is badly managed by the City Engineer's office and he has begun discussions with the various funeral homes to privatize part of the cemetery. He believes that it could become a commercially viable operation. He anticipates that once the funeral homes are interested that he should begin receiving proposals by the end of the year. He intends to place advertisements inviting proposals from interested persons shortly.
Ranwell Jordan, a PNCR councillor and former mayor told Current Affairs he does not think that privatising parts of the cemetery is a feasible idea. He describes the present state of the cemetery as the worst it has been in a number of years.
He believes that it is so not only because of bad management but also because of insufficient resources.
Jordan says that a cemetery should be a sacred place but that the maintenance of Le Repentir at this time does not reflect that. He explained that to maintain it at an acceptable standard, consideration had to be given to raising the fees charged as the citizens cannot be expected to continue to subsidise its maintenance.
James explained that part of the cemetery, about three acres, was taken by the government to build the National Gymnasium in exchange for a similar amount in the area of the Luckhoo Swimming Pool. Another five acres, he said, is being used as a land-fill site and another five acres to the west of that has been earmarked for similar use in the event that the land-fill site at Eccles is not available.
The City Engineer explained that because of the finite space of the cemetery something will have to give as the area being used for the land-fill sites were reserved for burials.
Jordan believes that some thought should be given to the establishment of crematoriums which would not only ease the pressure for space but also certain overhead maintenance costs.
Commenting on the burden the City Council faces, Jordan explained that in addition to maintaining the cemetery, the City Council is also called on to bury those persons whose bodies are not claimed by relatives and still-born babies born at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
In his budget presentation last month, the chairman of the Council's Finance Committee, Deputy Mayor Robert Williams said that the Council would no longer undertake this function and that the Ministry of Health would have to bear the full cost of these burials.
James, in looking at the resources available for the operations of the cemetery, explained that the revenue generated by the cemetery comes from the sale of burial spots with a premium being paid where the purchaser requires a particular spot that may require the Council to relocate resources to accommodate the burial; the opening and cleaning of tombs where a burial is taking place at least ten years after the first burial, earthen burials, and, though this source has all but dried up, from the cutting of grass and coconuts. Last year these items generated $7 million.
Its expenditure includes the cost of maintaining the all-weather roads and drains, cutting the grass to maintain the area at a reasonable level and trimming the trees. But he says that this poses a lot of difficulties as the weeding has to be done by hand as the distance between the tombs do not allow for the use of mechanical equipment. Also, he says some types of razor grass found in the cemetery grow as much as an inch in twenty-four hours.
He said that to keep the area looking reasonably tidy would require that it is weeded every two weeks and those areas where the razor grass grows would have to be weeded once every five days to keep it looking really neat.
James explained that the work has to be done manually as the use of weedicides is costly with one bottle costing in excess of $5000. The total expenditure for providing these services and other works undertaken at the cemetery was $22 million.
James explained too that the drainage in the city is not isolated from the drainage outside of the cemetery, with the drainage in the cemetery having to depend on the pumps at Liliendaal as the sluice at the Water Street end of the city is not working. As a consequence any obstruction in the drains leading to Liliendaal causes the water to back-up along the way back to the cemetery.
The roads he said have to compete for resources and level of attention with the other roads in the city and to the extent that the allocation for roads is below the required level, it is not hard to imagine that the cemetery roads would not receive the required attention.
James points out that because of the flooding of the cemetery, the Council has had to re-assign two excavators to work there for the next two-three weeks. That he says means that work which was scheduled to be carried out in Subryanville and North Ruimveldt had to be deferred.
He noted that the cost of an excavator was $18 million and the subvention received from the government last year did not meet this amount.
Asked about increases for the services such as burial fees, James said that there is opposition by the councillors who believe that they would have difficulty in selling the idea to their constituents. However, the budget measurers announced last month include increases in the cost of burials, earthen and tomb, which take effect from July 1.
Other arrangements being introduced, which would result in a reduction in the number of grave diggers employed by the Council at the cemetery, now call for the funeral homes to prepare all graves and tombs with the Council staff being only required to identify measure and mark out burial spots and to provide supervision and security. These arrangements also call for the funeral homes requesting these services to be charged the weekend rates.
The new arrangements also provide that where no funeral home is involved, persons requesting the Council to provide these services would be charged the weekend rates in addition to the cost of the land. These rates are: ordinary tomb burial $9000; earthen burial $3000; casket burial $13 000 with the cost of the land respectively for each type of burial being between $4980, $4,096 and $500 and $1500 for children. The new arrangements also call for repairs to tombs in cases of vandalism being carried out by the funeral homes and the charges are to be determined upon request if the Council has to do the repairs.
Jordan says that the increased fees would add a further burden on the poor but that the Council can no longer bear the cost and another agency would have to take up the slack left by the council.
He explains too that the new arrangements call for the cemetery staff to monitor the tombs being built by the funeral homes to ensure that the right amounts of cement and sand are used in their construction.
James said that consideration has been given to franchising but that the areas that are to be franchised are already owned - purchased by people for burial spots - and that in itself would pose a number of problems as the City bye-laws would have to be amended. He notes that section of the cemetery are controlled by the Anglican and Catholic churches and the Moslem Community but that there are no conditions that require these bodies to keep the sections of the cemetery they control in good order. However, he said that the Council is considering awarding contracts for the maintenance of the cemetery.
Jordan believes that these organisations should be approached to ensure that they give some attention to maintaining the areas under their control at an acceptable standard.
Asked about the complaints often made about workers in the cemetery idling all the time, James said that this complaint is common to all council workers as well as to the pole-planting crews of the Guyana Power and Light. However, he says that the council is addressing the problem by moving to the application of contracts for services rendered.
Another area of concern is the mortuary which houses a chapel and is under the control of the Ministry of Health. Jordan says that this building is in a state of disrepair and its control has to be rationalized so that the repairs necessary could be carried out to bring it to an acceptable state.