Authorities plan intense crackdown as City trashing prevention campaign begins
Kaieteur News
January 23, 2007
In spite of increased frequency of clearance by Council's garbage contractors, a recent report from the Municipal Solid Waste Department revealed, litter in the City continues to increase.
Noting that this is a growing problem that is hurting the City, Deputy Mayor Robert Williams says that, as of tomorrow (Wednesday), harsh measures would be taken to ensure that citizens “Stop Trashing Georgetown.”
Budgeted to cost $730,000, this campaign would be used to enforce regulations on refuse receptacles on premises, serving notices to those who neglect this aspect of civic responsibility. Further, the campaign will be used to enforce the law on littering.
‘Litterbugs' will be taken away immediately for prosecution.
The campaign, involving the City Constabulary, Solid Waste Management, and City Public Health departments, as well as the Public Relations arm, will target careless citizens who litter the parapets and waterways, as well as business owners and occupiers, etc.
City Hall says that the littering continues to cost the City millions of dollars which could otherwise be used to further develop roads, bridges, the environment, and to undertake social projects.
Referring to Cricket World Cup as being at the City's door step, Solid Waste Manager Hubert Urling, Deputy Mayor Robert Williams, and City Public Relations Officer Royston King informed that this campaign would go beyond the event, but will be executed as a need to address the situation urgently. “Otherwise, Georgetown could be terribly embarrassed…we must get it right now.”
However, while the goal of the campaign is to reduce the amount of litter and ‘litterbugs' in Georgetown city, emphasis will be on media publicity, to replicate the success of the campaign in other communities.
The three-part campaign would adopt an interdepartmental approach to address the challenges of littering in the city through a task force comprising all stakeholders.
Phase Two would involve the education of the citizenry on the dangers and costs of littering to the City.
And Phase Three would see a partnership of organisations, including the media, to allow stakeholders to have a sense of ownership of the campaign. (Mondale Smith)