Gov’t moots “environment court” to enforce anti-litter laws – opposition calls for national strategy

An environmental court is in the making as the Natural Resources and the Environment Ministry moves to enforce the country’s anti-litter laws. This announcement was made on Tuesday by subject minister Robert Persaud at the launch of the “Pick it up Guyana” campaign held at the National Park, Thomas Lands.
According to Persaud, enforcement is critical to ensuring that Guyana obtains the status of a green economy. He said the “Pick it up Guyana” initiative will not be focusing only on communities located on the coast, noting that hinterland locations will also be targeted; particularly mining communities.
As part of that programme, citizens will be educated about the dangers posed to the environment by littering while the ministry and partners would be developing incentives, while monitoring the identified communities. “I don’t think in our country, we have a problem with awareness or people not knowing what they ought not to do or what they should be doing. But perhaps our weakness is in the area of enforcement so we want also to send a clear message that in the coming period, we will be toughening up on enforcement.”
Persaud added: “We will be approaching the judiciary and ask that special arrangements be made as it were for an environment court, we are looking in terms of employing wardens and looking at our legislation to see where we can empower persons within the localities that they can have the powers of arrest at least to start that process.”  The minister said too that regulations would be enforced for the “simplest of violations”, both for individuals and big companies.
He noted that Guyana has an obligation to fulfil its duties under the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Act.
“We hope that people can see the value of having a clean, tidy environment and that at the end of the day we can make our country proud,” Persaud stated.

He stated that a similar effort is underway in the mining communities with a Gy$40 million initiative launched to address environmental and health matters in five districts.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader David Granger on Tuesday called on the administration to “promulgate a comprehensive national environment strategy in light of the adverse effects of climate change and man-made damage”.
A statement from the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) said Guyana’s biggest problems are those of solid waste management, coastal zone conservation, annual flooding, damage to rivers and forests by unregulated mining and logging practices, and its excessive dependence on fossil fuels to the neglect of alternative energy such as wind, water and solar-generated electrical power.
He said too that Guyana needs a coherent approach to what is considered the five Es: environmental education, enforcement of regulations, ecological consciousness by all, energy that is renewable and economic exploitation of mineral, timber and tourism resources in a sustainable manner.