Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Priya Manickchand has warned that “serious action” will now be taken to fix Georgetown’s refuse crisis, after Mayor Alfred Mentore and APNU councillors boycotted a crucial meeting on the city’s sanitation plan.
The minister had given the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) until 11:00 hrs on Monday to present a comprehensive plan to reverse the capital’s deteriorating state, following a contentious meeting on Sunday where she described conditions in Georgetown as “wholly unacceptable” and service delivery as unreliable and ineffective.
“Serious action will have to be taken for the benefit of the citizens and residents of Georgetown. Because we no longer have to examine what the issues and problems are. This is where we are now,” Minister Manickchand affirmed.
The minister said the mayor initially agreed to attend a closed-door engagement on Monday morning, but withdrew after she requested that all councillors be invited so that “each councillor, and therefore the people who live in their respective constituency,” could contribute to the discussion.
She reported that no APNU councillor attended and that those who came to City Hall “received a call and hurriedly left the compound.”
The minister accused the mayor and APNU councillors of blocking efforts to resolve the city’s waste-management crisis, charging that they “benefit in some way from a city that is approaching being inhabitable” and that residents, commuters and visitors are being “held hostage to poor politics.”
Minister Manickchand stated that the withdrawals have undermined attempts to build a collaborative working relationship between the government and the M&CC.
The minister also rejected claims that the government is responsible for contracting sanitation workers or undermining the council, insisting that her ministry has issued no such contracts.
She noted that while city officials privately cited resource constraints in discussions with her, Mayor Mentore later publicly dismissed those claims, even as the same shortages were advanced in public as a key reason for the decline in services.
Stressing that “service to citizens must trump” political manoeuvring, the minister pledged that the government will now move to ensure cleaner streets and more reliable garbage collection across Georgetown.
“Your government understands that this cannot go on,” she said. “Your government is going to take action that will see results, and that will be responsive to your needs… this habitual, historical reliance on improved relations that seem impossible cannot hold us back anymore, to the detriment of the citizens of Georgetown.”