By Travis Chase | HGP Nightly News|
GEORGETOWN, GUYANA — The Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has launched an aggressive, multi-day sanitation and rehabilitation exercise surrounding the Bourda Market, temporarily halting all street vending along a primary commercial stretch of Robb Street to address severe public health hazards.
Municipal workers, operating alongside technical teams from Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), moved in to dismantle dozens of makeshift wooden stalls and clear decades of accumulated waste, clogged drainage networks, and overflowing sewage lines between Alexander Street and Orange Walk.
Dismantling Makeshift Stalls and Tackling Sewage Defects
The intensive clean-up targets longstanding environmental hazards that municipal health inspectors warned could no longer be ignored, particularly given the proximity of raw food and meat sales.
- Robb Street Vending Suspension: Vending along Robb Street (between Alexander Street and Orange Walk) has been temporarily suspended while heavy machinery and municipal crews desilt drains and flush underground sewer mains.
- Removal of Permanent Structures: City Hall workers systematically dismantled illegal, permanent wooden shacks and makeshift overhangs that restricted drainage access and trapped refuse.
- GWI Sewerage Partnership: M&CC is collaborating directly with GWI engineers to clear blocked waste mains and repair damaged wastewater infrastructure servicing the market perimeter.
Mayor Alfred Mentore Warns Return Could Be Delayed
Speaking on site during the operation, Mayor of Georgetown Alfred Mentore emphasized that while the exercise was initially scheduled for three days, the suspension of vending could be extended if workers uncover deeper structural or sewage defects requiring remediation.
“The Council has a duty to protect public health, and that must take precedence over commercial activity—especially where food is being sold,” Mayor Alfred Mentore stated. “If we find additional challenges with the drainage or sewage lines that require more time, the shutdown along this section will last longer than initially planned.”
Shift to Collapsible Tents and Portable Tables
Mayor Mentore made it clear that municipal authorities are not trying to push vendors out of business, but declared that the era of permanent, unregulated street structures at Bourda Market is over.
When vending resumes along Robb Street, returning vendors will be required to operate under strict new sanitary guidelines, utilizing only collapsible tents and portable tables that must be dismantled and removed at the end of each business day to allow nightly municipal cleaning.
City Hall confirmed that similar targeted sanitation drives will be rolled out across other municipal markets in Georgetown in the coming weeks.
