Last Updated on Monday, 19 January 2026, 23:00 by Writer
The Georgetown Mayor and City Council on Monday declared a limited state of solid waste emergency in the capital, deciding to reassign non-essential staff to assist with the clean-up and craft a strategy to present to the central government for its financial and other forms of support.
City Mayor Alfred Mentore said the move would pave the way for rapid deployment of additional equipment, short-term hiring of garbage collection contractors, reassignment of non-essential municipal staff to sanitation and clean-up duties, a city-wide garbage clean-up plan at markets, commercial districts, hospitals, schools and densely populated residential wards, and identification of illegal dumping hotspots, and the establishment of temporary garbage drop-off sites.
The city’s administration plans to acquire additional vehicles and staff to go after litterbugs with stricter enforcement.
Of the 30 councillors, only 10 from A Partnership for National Unity and three from the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) attended the statutory council meeting at which the resolution was passed.
Earlier on Monday, APNU councillors boycotted a meeting called by local government minister Priya Manickchand at her office, but all PPPC councillors participated. The motion was seconded by APNU Councillor Clayton Hinds.
About 24 hours after lashing out at Ms Manickchand for going public about Sunday afternoon’s WhatsApp meeting with himself, PPPC Councillor Don Singh and Chief Sanitation Officer Walter Narine, the Mayor told the statutory meeting that the APNU-dominated council was ready to “throw politics through the window” and work with the PPPC-led central government for the improvement of the city.
He hoped that the planned collaborative approach between City Hall and central government could be used as a model in other locally governed areas of Guyana. “We just can’t say we are going to pick up garbage and we will do that. This has to be a holistic responsibility. This has to be a hand-in-glove arrangement between the city and the government of Guyana and this we will pilot so that this process will eventually then redound or treated with in other towns,” he said.
The Mayor envisages collaboration among technical personnel and elected representatives of Georgetown and central government.
Earlier on Monday, after the Mayor and other APNU councillors refused to attend a meeting, the local government minister expressed skepticism at Mr Mentore’s motive for the third time since she was appointed minister following the September 1, 2025 general and regional elections. She said that was despite her best efforts to break from “historic bad habits” and address the deplorable state of Georgetown.
Mr Mentore said the intention is to “frame a broader plan” and have specific aspects by the Solid Waste Department to include stiffer penalties and enforcement aganist illegal dumping and blocked drains, supervision and accountability of contractors, increased revenue measures, removing central government hindrances to increased tax collection, public education and vendor engagement.
Mr Hinds said only a small area of Georgetown was facing a waste disposal crisis.
He and the Mayor criticised the minister for failing to keep her promise to have the large blue waste bins cleared by central government.
The council meeting also supported Chief Sanitation Officer, Walter Narine’s proposal for small contractors to be hired and paid promptly.
The Mayor undertook to have a petty cash system to pay the small contractors in light of the past unwillingness of small contractors to work because they were not paid promptly. “I have just recommended that we have a petty cash arrangement to pay those persons as soon as they had done their work within the week so that we keep them bubbling and we keep them well,” he said.
Responding to repeated questions by Mr Hinds about what was being done to hold the large garbage collection companies accountable for their lapses, Mr Narain urged caution about imposing sanctions because they are needed to collect the backlog and future garbage.
Mr Narine told the statutory meeting that a major constraint facing garbage collection and disposal contractors were the increased population in the city due to the growing number of migrants and the increased number of supermarkets “at every other corner”. “You have a large population of foreign nationals living in the city and they are renting rooms and every set of them is producing garbage,” he said.
He said there has been a 16 percent increase in garbage from 184 tonnes per day five years ago. As a result, he said a garbage truck now has to make three loads per constituency instead of one as evidenced by bins, cardboard boxes and bags.
The Chief Sanitation Officer painted a bleak future for waste collection in the city. “You have to be fair. The current structure or the current system that we have can’t continue. We are going to have garbage popping up already,” he said.
Councillor Troy Garraway also expressed grave concern at the obvious lack of work in Albouystown and other areas, in stark contrast to commitments given by the Chief Sanitation Officer.
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