City moves closer to imposing stiffer penalties with new anti-littering bylaws

May 19, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – The Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has moved a step closer towards bringing into force new anti-littering bylaws which will ensure higher penalties for persons caught dumping garbage in the city.
During the presentation of the 2021 budget for the M&CC held at City Hall on Monday, Councillors were informed of the draft of the proposed new anti-littering regulations that will soon be released for public scrutiny.

The City’s Solid Waste Director, Walter Narine.

Town Clerk (Ag) of the Georgetown M&CC, Sherry Jerrick, informed the council that the document will be published for 21 days as part of a consultative process. According to Jerrick, after the consultation, the enactment of the bylaws will follow. She said that this would mean stiffer penalties for any person who violates any of the provisions.
According to the proposed bylaws, litter means any solid or liquid material or product such as rubbish, refuse, garbage, paper package, container, bottle, cans, manure, human or animal excrement, the whole or part of an animal’s carcass, coal, wood, gravel, earth, sawdust, glass, plastic, nails, staples, tacks, scraps or metal, and expended tobacco products. It also refers to the whole or part of any article, raw or processed material, vehicle or machinery of any type.
Among the penalties under consideration for those caught dumping or in breach of the new anti-littering bylaws are fines starting from $70,000 and ending up at $500,000. Previously, the City‘s fines for littering ranged from $25,000 to $100,000, with imprisonment as the consequence of the failure to pay.
The new proposed bylaws stipulate that the fines are to be paid to the City within 72 hours from the time notice is given. Failure to adhere to the notice shall attract an additional fine of $10,000 for every 24 hours payment remains outstanding.
Further, the document says that “Every person who remains in default of payment for more than 72 hours commits an offense and, upon summary conviction, is liable to imprisonment for 6 months.”

One of the regular garbage sites around the city.

As the city welcomes the bylaws as a means of curbing the habits of citizens who continually dump garbage at almost every ward of Georgetown, the City’s Solid Waste Director, Walter Narine, said that he hopes the proposal will significantly curb the solid waste disposal problem.
During a previous interview with Kaieteur News, Narine had stressed that the uncontrollable littering habits of Guyanese have not only made Georgetown, but Guyana as a whole unhealthy to live in. He noted that this catastrophe is the number one tourist repellent as no one would want to tour a country that “stinks with garbage.”
“Plastic bottles and bags, food boxes, condoms and used sanitary napkins are among some of the most common items that persons wantonly throw about the place,” Narine added as he noted that vendors in and around the Stabroek Market have been disregarding the presence of a disposal container and littering litter-free places, which they (the vendors) would have to pay to clean. Narine had questioned the role of the City Constables “who do not seem to be paying keen attention to the apparent lawlessness that occurs right behind the Police Mobile Outpost outside the Stabroek Market.”