Innovative community watch

Dear Editor,

“Mangrove women in clean community competition” makes for a most exciting piece of reading. I think of my Sunday school days. I used to participate in Bible Quiz competitions.

So it was like ‘fighting for knowledge.’ Now residents of five villages that comprise the Golden Grove to Belfield Mangrove Reserve area, on the East Coast of Demerara are expected to vie for a Gy$ 100,000 prize, this being offered for the cleanest community. The prize is actually being put up by the Mangrove Reserve Women Agriculture Producers (MRWAP) of the Guyana Mangrove Restoration Project (GMRP). To me this says that there is an ‘environmental momentum’ in Guyana, and this must not be slackened.

Readers please be reminded that The GMRP recently copped the Caribbean Tourism Organisation 2012 Award for Biodiversity Conservation. The villages which are eligible to compete are those within the Mangroves Reserves, namely Golden Grove, Nabaclis, Cove and John, Victoria and Belfield. The “cleanest village” competition was one of several strategies arrived at by the members of MRWAP, who have joined the Minding Guyana group, all in an effort to do something about the eyesores, health threats and stench of accumulating garbage, caused by littering and improper waste disposal in their communities.

Now stick a pin here. When these ‘eye sores’ are found anywhere in Guyana, who are the people responsible? It is because there is very little accountability that this kind of irresponsibility is prevailing.

For example, I inadvertently visited a few of the kite flying spots on the Sea Wall. Well to my utter bewilderment, I had to be careful of broken bottles.

Just a few nights ago, a young man drank his beer, and then exploded his empty bottle in the middle of the street. I could have called the police, but knowing that ‘this is Guyana’ and remembering my many futile attempts to get them to respond, I just let the matter go.

Now, I am hoping that this kind of ‘environmental watch’ will spread right across this country. I am urging all Guyanese to come to the realisation that in protecting the environment they are also protecting themselves. These good natured and intelligent lot should also look for others who are not contributing to the cause. In the event that this group ‘mess’ things up, they should be intercepted with the law and then be educated.

Thumbs up for the organisers and villagers taking part in this exercise!

Yours sincerely,

Eileen Da’Costa