Cleanup activities are continuing across the country under the National Programme for the Upkeep of Public Spaces ahead of Carnival 2026 celebrations.
Cleanup activities in the Caura area commenced last week.
TTT News visited the area on Monday morning, and spoke with the area’s Councillor, Sookdeo Prakash Barath, who expressed his satisfaction with the progress.
He said the workers started last week at the Caura Hospital and have already collected several bags of garbage.
“They started at the hospital and they’re going straight up to Pool 1 and Pool 2. As you can see, the roads have not been cleaned for a certain time, but the workers here are really, really excited. Most of the workers here are from the CEPEP, so we are taking into the CEPEP teams and bringing the workers on.”
Councillor Barath said this programme will benefit the participants greatly.
“This is meaningful pay, this isn’t like $80 or $90. It’s almost like $300 a day these workers are going to get. And so they can put food on the table, they can see about their families. So that’s the idea behind this whole thing. So I want to thank, first of all, the Prime Minister for this initiative, the Minister of Local Government for initiating the programme and ensuring that it was taken to Cabinet, and we got the necessary funding to do this.”
Meanwhile, one of the participants, Trisha Quacco, said she was happy to be a part of the programme.
“I’m feeling really good to come out every day and work for an honest dollar. I was home not doing anything, and a lot of people are single parents working here. You know, so I find it a good idea that they bring on the programme. I’m hoping that it becomes permanent.”
The National Upkeep of Public Spaces Programme was officially launched nationwide on December 15th, 2025. Initiated by the Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government, the pilot programme was designed to run for 13 weeks, from December 15th, 2025, to March 13th, 2026, focusing on maintaining public spaces.