Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 20, 2010 News
Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, has appealed to citizens that they have to play their part in managing their environment.
This is important because irrespective of how much work government does to maintain drainage infrastructure, if the people in a community persist in throwing their garbage into the drains it is inevitable that these drains will become clogged up, he said.
The Minister was at the time briefing media operatives at his office on Main Street. The job of keeping the drains in the city clean was not only up to the government or the Mayor and City Council, he said.
“The response to this has to be realised not only by a governmental effort, not only by an effort by the local authorities that are responsible in the case of the city of Georgetown, (the Mayor and Councils in the city of Georgetown) but, also by the citizens. There are very important attitudinal changes that are required.”
The government collects some $600M as an Environmental Tax on items such as styrofoam and plastics. Dr Singh said, “The Environmental tax is one source of revenue for the budget… This tax goes into the Consolidated Fund.”
He added, “The budget includes very significant investment of billions of dollars in drainage and irrigation expenditure throughout the length and breadth of our country.” Dr Ashni Singh said that the expenditure is “visible”.
The Minister said that the expenditure in the “drainage canals, maintenance of koker outlets, maintenance of our conservancy and the entire drainage and irrigation infrastructure in the city” is well known.
Minister Singh said that his Ministry has had to “intervene in the case of the city of Georgetown” by spending in excess of $100M to improve drainage pumps at Kitty and Liliendaal.
The Minister also drew attention to the fact that this amount was spent specifically from the budget by the “Central Government” on the drainage and irrigation process “putting aside roads.”
He said that his Ministry spent “tens of millions of dollars on the Kitty pump and the Liliendaal pump all with the aim of ensuring that the city is better drained.” But he “urged” persons not to forget that the “principal responsibility for drainage of the city rests with the Mayor and City Council.”
Dr Ashni Singh stressed that his Ministry will “continue to make the necessary investments and continue to support and provide extensive support to the city…But, there are some challenges in draining the city and there is a lot of work to be done by the Mayor and City Council to address this problem.”
Dr Singh exclaimed that he is just as “displeased as anybody else” about the flooding that occurs in the city due to heavy rains.
The Minister again stressed, “There are also very important attitudinal changes that have to be realised.”
Dr Singh added, “Every time there is a flood we lament just as you lament the plastic bottles in the drains…Every time we have a flood we point out that drainage outlets are clogged by plastic bottles and Styrofoam boxes or other wastes.”
The Finance Minister said that removing this mess is an “effort that cannot rest only with government.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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