Every year on this day [April 1st] somebody pulls a fast one on the other. There was the year when the late Ron Robinson and his team at the then Guyana Broadcasting Corporation sent the hierarchy of the police racing up to the now Cheddi Jagan International Airport.
They had reported in a serious fashion that there was an incident at the airport. Needless to say, the authorities were furious.
There were many other such pranks around the world. A famous one was the BBC broadcast of Orson Wells’s War of the Worlds. There was panic in London. Kaieteur News once reported on April Fool’s Day that the United States had revoked the visas of some Guyanese. The US Embassy in Guyana was not amused.
When videos of the flooded streets in and around Georgetown circulated widely on social media the other day the people would have been happy if that was, as people say in Guyana, an All Fools Day joke. The Georgetown municipality would have been happy if the announcement of the taking over of the city streets by the government was also an All Fools Day joke.
Sadly, both were true. There was a period when flooding in the city was a rarity. Ahead of the 2005 flood that inundated coastal Guyana there was one in the 1940s. After the 2005 floods when many people died, some as a result of leptospirosis and some by drowning, there was a major corrective measure in the form of the Hope Canal.
The conservancy had swelled its banks. Up until then the government deliberately flooded the people of Mahaica by releasing water through the Mahaica Creek. One could only imagine the misery of those people.
But when it came close to home there was an immediate reaction. The Hope Canal was born. But Hope Canal or not, Georgetown keeps flooding after a period of rainfall. And this is happening even after the government is spending billions of dollars on infrastructure.
There was Minister Priya Manickchand walking in some streets and urging motorists to drive slowly because the waves created by the passing vehicles would further flood the homes of many living on the ground floor.
There was no talk of creating proper drainage to allow for the flow of water from the land. It matters not that this is a perennial problem. Instead the government builds roads. It is now taking over the city streets.
Between 2015 and 2020 many breathed a sigh of relief when they woke up to find little or no water in their homes after similarly heavy periods of rainfall. The existing drains had been cleared and the outfall channels were all desilted.
Georgetown was so clean that even Bharrat Jagdeo was envious to the point of remarking that perhaps the Granger government expected people to eat off the streets. The reality is that the streets are no longer clean and the drainage systems are once more blocked.
Construction works in and around the city no longer pay attention to the drainage system. They reduce the size of the drains where they feel, or simply block them with impunity. Supervision at construction sites is non-existent.
The United States Ambassador to Guyana lauded the infrastructure programme. She was happy that Guyana appeared to be on the right road. Her comment was needed to salve President Irfaan Ali’s bruised feelings when people queried whether he expected them to eat roads.
I would have asked her to comment on the rising poverty levels if Guyana was indeed on the right track. However, the government has acquired even more roads. It now has 57 new public roads. At first glance one would be tempted to conclude that the government simply wants more roads on which to spend money.
Sadly, that is not the case. Rather it is a case of denuding the City Council while trying to take control of Georgetown. The last time it took control of the city was when it installed an interim management committee headed by Dr James Rose to run the city.
Hammy Green put paid to that when his Good and Green Guyana won the municipal elections. Today, another move is afoot by the PPP to control the municipality it never won. It began with the stalled reconstruction of City Hall.
Then there was the attempt on Stabroek Market. That got nowhere so the next move was under the pretext of beautifying the area of the market during the last Christmas season. All the while the government has installed a Town Clerk to stymie the work of the council.
Imagine being locked out of your own home. The government locked City Hall out of the abattoir.
Things had actually reached the stage where the police arrested Mayor Ubraj Narine for halting traffic in his city, something unheard of in any municipality where the Mayor is the Chief Citizen.
Now the race to control the city is on full drive. The Guyana Elections Commission is in no position to supervise elections in Guyana at this time. This means that local government elections are not on the cards.
The government cannot wait indefinitely. It also knows that elections will not provide the opportunity to control Georgetown. The solution rests in measures adopted by Putin against Ukraine. Just take. Mayor Alfred Mentore does not have an army to resist.
It seems that Khemraj Ramjattan was not wrong when he accused the government of being control freaks. It has done the Maths. It knows how much money can be had from rates and taxes. Of course, the government would then be exempt from such charges.
A slew of Venezuelans would be hired to go around and collect rates from the citizenry. Guyana Power and Light would not have to worry about unpaid bills.
Councillors? What councilors?
