East Coast Demerara residents welcome Operation Clean Up

Operation Clean Up continued on Saturday on the East Coast Demerara where scores of residents turned out to lend their support. The campaign, started by the private sector to beautify the city, has been fully supported by government and has since been adopted by communities countrywide.

Leading Saturday’s exercise were Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall, S.C, and Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony. The targeted communities included Buxton, Enterprise, Enmore, Vryheid’s Lust, Better Hope and several others along the East Coast corridor.

Both ministers, Anthony and Nandlall were on the ECD last weekend to start the clean up along that corridor.

The scores of residents who joined the exercise welcomed the initiative. Leeone Ramnarine, a resident of Better Hope said it was something she wanted to happen years ago.

“I am very much glad that the president has put forward this initiative because I have been begging from since the previous government to have this because we try on our own, but we could not have had the success like what we are seeing today,” Ramnarine stated.

Teacher, Saskia Rahim said she was happy to be part of such an initiative.

“Firstly, it is our community, we are here to make it clean, a better Guyana as one people, one nation, one destiny. We come out together to get it clean and this is not going to be a one-time thing, it is going to be a regular thing,” she noted.

Charika Persaud, of Enterprise shared similar sentiments. Persaud said, “It is like an example for the younger ones because living in this community we have learnt to keep this community clean … it is a great initiative to know you need to clean up your own waste.”

Buxtonians, Kelvin Braithwaite and Letta Murray said the campaign is something that was needed in the community. They also expressed their gratitude to everyone who turned out to make it possible.

“We are trying to get the place tidy and stop people from throwing garbage around the place and let everything be in order, trying to get the community back clean and tidy. We bring out a lot of people and next week, a lot more people must come out and assist,” Braithwaite said.

“I must thank everyone for coming out today, the Minister to come out today to clean up Buxton because is long Buxton need cleaning up and I am glad for the little works the Minister and President are doing so that we can clean Buxton and continue to let us clean Buxton whenever they can afford to clean,” Murray added.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General made it clear that keeping a clean environment is a national responsibility. The Minister said he was pleased by the response of the citizens, while noting that the exercise is one that will continue countrywide.

“This exercise can unify and unite our people. I do not think any segment of our population would want to tolerate a dirty environment. We are Guyanese, we were brought up in a particular cultural environment, all of us were told as young children that cleanliness is next to godliness, irrespective of which political party you support, irrespective of which ethnic group you belong. That is a seminal Guyanese principle that was taught to us by our parents and fore parents and you are seeing now that Guyanese coming out on this initiative started by the President and the expression of support that you are seeing here obviously goes beyond all type of barriers,” the Attorney General stated.

Minister Anthony made an appeal to Guyanese to continue giving support to the clean up campaign and to help maintain a clean environment.

“We would like to appeal to residents to come out and join this campaign because at the end of the day, it’s keeping your community clean and when we clean a particular area, I think it’s very, very important that we maintain that cleanliness.”

Operation Clean Up continues on Sunday on the East Coast Demerara, where several other communities will benefit.