9 more arrested for illegal dumping in city

…2 sentenced to community service

The crackdown on illegal dumping in Georgetown continues to yield results, with nine more individuals recently arrested as part of the ongoing stakeout operation led by the Solid Waste Management Unit of the Mayor and City Council.
Solid Waste Manager of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), Walter Narine, confirmed that the arrests were made over the past few days during intensified night operations across key commercial areas of the city.
“So far, two more persons have already appeared in court,” Narine reported, adding that both offenders were sentenced to three and six weeks of community service, respectively.  “That’s exactly what I wanted all the time,” he said, noting that community service sends a stronger message than a monetary fine.
“A fine only allows people to go back to business as usual, but cleaning the same areas they littered drives the message home.”
According to Narine, the remaining offenders are expected to make their court appearances in the coming days.
“The majority of them are heading to Port on Thursday,” he explained, adding that he hopes similar sentences will be handed down.

Narine described the initiative as “a very good and necessary thing” that is already showing positive results.

“It needs more bodies on the ground because I and two or three ranks can’t man the entire commercial district,” he said. “But what’s pleasing is that the numbers have started to drop significantly since we began.”
He also noted that public cooperation has increased, with many vendors taking responsibility for their surroundings.
“We’ve seen vendors discouraging others from littering and even chasing away people trying to dump illegally; they don’t want to get caught up in it.”
As part of the ongoing efforts, Narine said he intends to distribute garbage bags to vendors to encourage proper waste disposal.

“I’m also planning to share some garbage bags tonight with the vendors,” Narine said. “They can use them to make smaller bags for their own stalls – even distributing a few of the larger bags will go a long way.”