Mayor, Councillor blast Solid Waste Director for garbage pile-up

His Worship the Mayor of Georgetown, Ubraj Narine on Monday disclosed that he had received numerous complaints about the state of several constituencies which fall under the ambit of Solid Waste Director, Walter Narine.

“The people who [are] working with you, I believe you don’t have any kind of manual system in place for them. I’m telling you plain, I already encourage Fifth Street and Fourth Street, Alberttown, to come and protest, and I will join them with a placard in front of City Hall,” Narine told the Solid Waste Director during a statutory meeting.
Mayor Narine further added that due to the shortcomings of the Director, the entire Council has been blamed by residents of these areas. In order to remedy this, he suggested that the Director’s workload be reassessed and that he be reassigned to focus mainly on the city’s markets.
The Solid Waste Director, in response to the Mayor’s claims, explained that “the first week we had some severe problems, I must apologise publicly on behalf of my staff who were soliciting money on Thursday from residents.”
The Director further explained that following investigations into the incident, the staff who was found guilty of doing such has been removed.

Director Narine, also pointed out that sanitation has now become “parapet waste collection” due to poor disposal practices by the general public.
However, Councillor Heston Bostwick argued that collecting waste from parapets should not pose an issue.
“I have stood at this Council many times and asked the question repeatedly if collection of parapet place is included in the contracts that contractors signs. [So] what is it you’re trying to tell this Council now?” Bostwick added.
The Director further explained that “this has been happening for the longest while. Vendors are dumping. You clear it today, they dump tomorrow. In Sussex Street, they burning copper every night.”
Additionally, he added that the issue does not lie in the cleaning process but there must be efforts to address the root of the problem; which he noted is poor garbage disposal.
Narine further urged that the City Constabulary assist his department and the Council at large to patrol and enforce proper disposal of garbage.
“Then we come to the store owners, 95 per cent of them do not have waste receptacles inside their business, so they dump it on the parapets.”
He also pointed out that despite the Council making receptacles available in business districts, business owners would pay vagrants to dispose of their garbage, which is mostly dumped on parapets and unoccupied lands.
The Council’s Director of Solid waste further called on owners of unoccupied lands to fence their properties to prevent vagrants from disposing of garbage in those spaces.