The Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has delivered on its promise to promptly clean the City following Friday’s Mashramani Day Costume and Float Parade, which saw thousands in attendance.
Guyana’s 54th Republic Anniversary celebrations saw thousands of citizens and tourists jamming to sweet Soca vibes as the parade moved through the streets of Georgetown. The atmosphere was engulfed with vibrant and creative costume bands, a lively parade, and high-quality performances by local artistes. Thousands of vendors also gathered along the streets of Georgetown to ply their trade and immerse themselves in the vibrant festivities.
As anticipated after a public event of this nature, large amounts of waste products littered the City’s streets after Friday’s celebrations. However, as planned, the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) commenced its post-Mash clean-up exercise shortly after the festivities concluded.
Some 60 sanitation workers from the municipality’s Solid Waste Management and Engineers departments, and staff from the Ministry of Public Works spearheaded the exercise, which started at 4:00h on Saturday and finished at around 11:00h.
In an interview with local media entities, City Council’s Solid Waste Management Director, Walter Narine, disclosed that the teams were mobilized several days before the proceedings.
Narine explained that, over the years, the municipality has adopted an instant clean-up approach after the annual Mashramani Day Costume and Float Parade in order to ensure that Georgetown is environmentally healthy after such major events.
“The three teams came together. We were out here since four o’clock – that is, Council’s team – and we cleared from Camp and Church Street, coming all the way down to Irving, all the way to Lamaha; the Engineer team would have done that. The Solid Waste team would have done Vlissengen Road from by the Zoo to the Kitty Roundabout,” Narine explained.
Additionally, before the 2024 Mashramani Costume and Float Parade, the City Council had strategically placed a total of 100 skip bins along Middle, Main and Church streets, Thomas Lands and the National Park.
Narine said this strategy resulted in less garbage being thrown onto the streets when compared to previous years.
“It wasn’t as much (as) what we saw in previous years, in terms of garbage. So, I must commend the citizenry for doing better with the littering. We would provide bins, so some of the bins were used; so, I am very happy about that,” Narine said.
He added that the skip bins provided by the City Council would be emptied on a 24-hour basis, and would be situated in highly populated communities across Georgetown. The bins have been removed, and will now be situated in highly populated communities across Georgetown.
“…the Council will take those bins after clean-up, and they will place them strategically within the highly populated areas, like for example Regent Street, Robb Street, King Street, Wellington Street, and around the bus park, with the hope that the commuters use the bins that will stop littering,” the Solid Waste Director explained.
