Let us be the agents of change

Dear Editor,

I wish to speak to a couple of things in general. Firstly, I wish to commend President Ali and the PPP/C Administration for the thought of setting up another city on the Linden highway. This is a step in the right direction. I also noticed the president made mention to the floodplain being one of the reason for such a thought/idea. The flooding problems in and around the city and the East Coast is indeed cause for concern. Action must be taken immediately to prevent catastrophic damage. In an earlier article I made note of the increased occurrences of abnormal weather patterns especially during the Atlantic Hurricane season, and how closely outer bands of those systems were trekking in or over Guyana.

I personally believe that adequate funding must be given to the meteorology department for necessary and urgent upgrades to be able to track these storms and give adequate and accurate warnings and updates. Decentralizing governmental and other services would be most welcomed. This city and others which I envision will be set up in other areas will foster population shift, hence industries and other businesses will see the need to expand. That would mean that there would always be back services in other cities should the worst happen.

Secondly, I am concerned at the daily COVID-19 cases in Guyana. Guyanese should and must do their part to reduce the spread of this deadly virus. Social events must be addressed and monitored carefully with limited attendees, since these are deemed super spreader events. If each of us do our parts, it will definitely be much easier on our fragile health care system and our heroic health care workers. Flattening the curve is one thing but beating this virus is most important. MASK UP! It works. Stay socially distanced, and sanitize regularly! The faster we can comply, the sooner we will get back to some degree of normalcy. Once this happens, then our students can return to the classroom. They have already missed out on vital instructional time. I will be the first to admit that our education system needs to be urgently and technologically restructured. However, that may not be feasible at this time, and definitely cannot be done overnight, but that is where we must be heading. Let us all do our parts in keeping ourselves and Guyana healthy and safe.

Finally, I must commend the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development for embracing the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) initiative and for their step in getting communities involved through an art competition recently announced. This is great news, but this initiative is much, much more than just a competition. The 3Rs Initiative must be fully accepted and endorsed throughout Guyana, and by extension, the world. This is actually the order of the day. Many countries have already bought into the initiative, and have made great strides in reducing the amount of waste that are getting into their waste streams.

Through this initiative, we will learn and practice new and improved waste management and disposal strategies. Poor waste management and disposal techniques are accounting for, amongst other things, global warming which contributes to rapidly rising sea levels. Sadly, countries such as ours stand to receive the brunt of these negative effects. I encourage all of Guyana to let us be the agents of change, and dispose of our trash more responsibly. Use the seawall and other beautification projects undertaken by our First Lady as inspiration for keeping our immediate environments and communities clean and pristine.

Respectfully Yours
Deav J.