Minimal funds expended by City Hall for mash cleanup

Feb 25, 2010 News

Utilising the services of its own workforce, the Georgetown municipality commenced a massive cleanup campaign yesterday to rid the streets of post-Mashramani litter. And the workers armed with their relevant tools sure had their work cut out for them as they braved the heat of the morning to gather and remove the excess waste.

City workers remove the litter

Yesterday the cleanup teams could be seen diligently traversing Merriman Mall, were at strategic points along Church Street engaged in their rigorous task which lasted for several hours and along Vlissengen Road.
Though unable to put a cost to yesterday’s operation, Deputy Mayor Robert Williams, said that the cost would not amount to an elaborate sum as the municipality sought to use its own human resource rather than contract private operators.
In fact, the municipality has since last year been contemplating using its own human resources to undertake general garbage collection. “This is still to be examined by the council…So there is a possibility that at some point we will decide to do it ourselves.”
The municipality has been utilising the services of at least three private garbage collection firms over the past years. However, with its restricted revenue base the city entity has on several occasions found it difficult to maintain an efficient system of payment.
This situation resulted in the garbage collecting firms withdrawing their services from the municipality on a number of occasions.
During the withdrawal of their services last year Public Relations Officer, Royston King, in an invited comment had revealed that despite the earnest efforts that were engaged funds were not readily forthcoming to honour the obligation.
As a result, he noted that the municipality had since then taken a decision to put in place an alternative measure which had seen municipal staffers from the Solid Waste Department keeping sections of Central Georgetown in an acceptable condition.
King disclosed that the municipality was in fact reviewing its contractual arrangement with garbage disposal contractors in wake of the decision made by the contractors to withdraw their service from the city entity.
He had divulged then that the municipality was even then considering the possibility of undertaking the garbage removal process through its relevant department – the Solid Waste Management Department.