Last Updated on Sunday, 20 September 2026, 15:06 by Writer
As the Georgetown city council ramps up efforts at fever pitch to make Guyana’s capital spick and span ahead of the state visit by His Majesty King Charles III, the Council has ordered police to devise a plan to go after litterbugs and fly-tippers around the town.
City Mayor Alfred Mentore, speaking during a statutory meeting of the council, said the city administration would formally ask the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to share information from its surveillance cameras about who is disposing waste against the litter laws.
People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) councillor Alfonso De Armas suggested access to the police CCTV cameras as part of the crackdown on indiscriminate disposal of waste in the capital.
Mr Mentore also said those caught committing such environmental crimes would be photographed, along with booking boards that include their names and offences, and published.
“Fine them, book them like a criminal… and take them out and lock them up, charge them at our level and send them through the court system and deal with it; this thing has to stop,” he said.
The mayor said those who send other persons with waste to dump would be prosecuted.
He said vendors would also be banned from selling if they are found culpable of giving other persons’ waste to dispose in unauthorised places.
“If they continue doing this, they will feel the wrath of the law,” he said.
The mayor urged the acting chief constable Marston McInroy to mobilise a team of personnel to go after those who are disposing waste on the streets, drains and parapets.
Mr Mentore said steps must be taken to rid the city administration of the perception that city police were asking offenders to pay bribes to escape arrest and prosecution.
“I’m asking you Mr Chief Constabulary to address this matter, to find ways internally on how we will go about dealing with this thing rather than behave as if we’re shaking down people. Let the ‘shake down people’ get some people locked up. I don’t want to hear about shaking down anymore,” the mayor said.
Head of the solid waste management department of the city administration, Walter Narine’s proposal to incentivise persons from a percentage of fines to persons who provide information about waste in the city was deferred until an assessment of the other measures.
Most of the city’s drains, including those a stone’s throw from City Hall, are clogged with plastic bags and other items.
For several months now, the drain outside the National Library on Church Street has been blocked by a fallen old traffic light control box.
Similarly, a large base of an old traffic light also sits in a drain on Avenue of the Republic and Robb Street.
Several existing drains are being cleaned but not maintained. A number of new drains are already being slowly filled with silt.
Foul, clogged and overflowing drains nearby two American fast food franchise branches are the order of the day.
More than one year ago, Mayor Mentore, on a tour of the Plaisance bus park, promised to find solutions to poor the drainage situation but nothing has changed after a downpour.
