See full release from the Mayor of Georgetown, Pandit Ubraj Narine:
The Georgetown Municipality is suffering under the management of the Government of Guyana, the Municipality is yet to receive its budgetary subventions of ten million dollars for 2020 and 30 million dollars for 2021. Meanwhile, two hundred million dollars is set to be handed by the Government of Guyana to employees working in an unproductive sugar industry.
Guyanese heads of organizations, citizens of Georgetown & across Guyana, and Guyanese within the diaspora all complain of the state of the city, especially with the collection of garbage and the rise in the spread of COVID-19 in the city.
The City Markets need to be closed to facilitate deep cleaning for full sanitation to aid in reducing and spreading COVID-19 in and across the city’s shopping areas. The city sprays and fumigates the markets weekly to maintain a healthy environment and prevent the spread of COVID-19. It is now time for a deep cleanse of the Markets as the rise in the infection of COVID-19 and deaths is spiraling out of control. The Markets and the city environment need to be fumigated to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the city.
The United States has warned its citizens on travel to Guyana because of the increasing number of COVID-19 infections and deaths.
The Government of Guyana has not set aside any special funding to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the Municipal districts of Guyana and is slow on their disbursement of subventions to the municipality.
The subvention from the Government of Guyana to the Georgetown Municipality is used to purchase equipment that bolsters the uptake of Garbage thereby maintaining the environment. Government subventions to the municipality aids in providing a clean and healthy environment for the citizens of Georgetown. To stifle the Municipality from receiving these two subventions should be cause for concern to organizations, Guyanese, and International citizens who operate in and around the city of Georgetown.
The Municipality has not purchased any new equipment, nor have we received any new equipment for the movement of garbage since the APNU/AFC government was in office.
I am appealing to the Government of Guyana to facilitate the payment of the two subventions for the release of municipal funds and as such, I wish to inform all businesses, residents, and the international community, that all Markets need to be closed to facilitate full sanitization of the stalls and drains around the Markets. The funds will also assist the purchasing of equipment needed to help with the removal of solid waste from Market facilities across the city and its environs.
The Georgetown Municipality wishes to contribute to the 2030 Millennium Development Goals and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that Guyana signed to improve health, the environment, improved water and sanitation, and maintenance of solid waste, among others.
