The Port of Spain City Corporation is taking steps to transform the capital with a new Clean City Initiative.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Port of Spain Mayor Chinua Alleyne outlined several major projects aimed at beautifying the capital.
With the review of programmes such as CEPEP and URP, he said there have been some challenges with the upkeep of the city. Once given approval from Government, he said the Port of Spain City Corporation plans to launch six projects aimed at cleaning up and revitalising the capital city.
“And if you go into your neighbourhood and you see an overgrown drain that had not been overgrown for a long time, know to yourself that that is probably a drain that CEPEP had been maintaining. So the Council has taken a decision. We’ve allocated some resources, as far as our hand could reach, to engage some contractors to be able to do landscaping work each weekend in the city and in the next few weeks — the coming weeks — those contractors will be redirected into communities.”
He said there are also plans to invest in new municipal vehicles.
“The trucks that we have are simply not reliable enough for the work that we have to do, and so the Council has taken a decision to invest in a new fleet of compactor trucks. We’ve also taken a decision to invest in a pilot project and purchase a fleet of street-sweeping machines.”
There will also be a public consultation meeting on October 27th, aimed at revising the garbage collection schedule.
“We’re inviting all members of the public, all burgesses of the city of Port of Spain to attend a public consultation with a view to revising the garbage collection schedule in the city of Port of Spain and to create a schedule that our existing fleet of compactors will be able to manage more effectively.”
Other initiatives include the containerisation of garbage, installing garbage bins throughout the downtown Port of Spain area, and ramping up the litter cart programme.
Mayor Alleyne said the funds will be used from the Corporation’s unspent balance of $13 million, once approval is given from the Minister of Rural Development and Local Government.