On Saturday, April 11, citizens turned out in large numbers for a “National Clean-Up” exercise spearheaded by President Mohamed Irfaan Ali. The initiative drew massive support from government officials, public servants, private sector representatives, members of the disciplined forces, and ordinary citizens. Under the scorching sun, they cleaned roadways, parapets and drains, and trimmed trees around public and private facilities.
At the close of the exercise, the National Enhancement Committee, chaired by Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation, Deodat Indar, issued a statement praising the turnout. The committee showered encomiums on the participants, noting that their efforts, including those of the ministers who were “spearheading operations across various regions” apparently with their trusty rakes and dustpans, were a reflection of “collective action and national pride.”
The minister, like a General after a fierce battle, declared: “The volume of waste removed in a single day speaks to the resolve of our people.” His comment portrayed our people as being capable of achieving the unachievable. It was as though we had finally breached the enemy’s fortress in this ongoing battle between good and evil, one in which our citizens as the do-gooders, managed to restore order to the realm.
The statement and the minister’s remarks unmistakably projected an image of an unwavering government, willing to confront a long-standing national issue by any means necessary. The optics were strong; so strong that it conceived a convenient narrative where the garbage crisis exists almost independent of governance. It exposed a troubling disconnect between dirty streets and the authority vested in those now celebrating the cleanup. The same government that mobilised thousands in a single day has, for years, failed to consistently enforce anti-littering laws, strengthen penalties, and implement sustainable waste management systems.
This, after all, was not the first clean-up exercise since the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s return to office. Minister Indar himself admitted to losing count of how many such interventions the government has had to undertake, estimating that the April 11 effort was about the eleventh.
Eleven times! Eleven attempts to confront the same issue. Eleven resets of a system that continues to fail. Eleven occasions where the Chairman of the Committee has had to thank citizens for cleaning up what should never have been allowed to accumulate in the first place. Eleven times ministers have been dispatched into communities with rakes and shovels. Eleven times public servants, members of the disciplined forces, and ordinary citizens have had to step in and do the work of a system that is supposed to function without emergency mobilisation.
At what point do we acknowledge that this approach is not working? As Albert Einstein is famously credited with saying, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If that standard is applied, then repeating clean-up exercises without fixing the underlying issues fits uncomfortably within that definition. The minister’s talk of citizen’s resolve could have been more fitting within the context of Guyanese, being fed up with incompetence, taking to the streets to do it themselves.
Minister Indar, we might have won this battle for the 11th time, but we are losing the war. As Master Tzu warned, “Prolonged warfare exhausts resources and weakens the state”. Yet, here we are, engaged in the same campaign, over and over again. The strategy is weak, and the Generals are growing tired. The people are tired.
Failure to change the approach will only result in more people becoming disenchanted with this process. There is already the existence of a reasonable argument held by many law-abiding citizens: “I do not litter, so why should I be made to clean up after those who do?” This argument could become prevalent if there is more mass mobilisation of people without the necessary legal grounding to punish those who litter and deface our environment. It is only a matter of time before more citizens resort to dropping arms and watching Rome burn.
The government cannot blame those who take this position. After all, refusing to be used and abused while the powers that be twiddle their thumbs, it is not a rejection of national pride. It is merely a stand on fairness. The expectation that responsible citizens must repeatedly clean up after those who litter, creates not unity, but resentment. Why should anyone clean someone else’s mess for a twelfth time?
A clean environment cannot be sustained by periodic national exercises. It demands continuous discipline, enforcement, and real consequences. Yet instead of meaningful solutions, what we are offered are carefully staged photo opportunities of an overzealous few hard at work, cameras rolling, and speeches about patriotic duty. Patriotism, in this context, becomes a mask for incompetence. Also, with the absence of measures, those who litter will only be embolden to continue, knowing that someone will always be there to clean up after them. As was so eloquently put by our Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall: “In the absence of the rule of law, anarchy and tyranny shall prevail”.
Reports indicate that more than a dozen garbage trucks were recently handed over to Neighbourhood Democratic Councils across the country. Granted, six years too late, but better late than never. When better to share them out than during a massive government-led cleanup campaign in a year when Local Government Elections are to be held?
But aside from the allocation of these resources, it maybe time for the government to also assess its existing related measures and programmes to ensure that there is value for money.
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, in his 2026 National Budget presentation, said that the government continues to invest heavily in environmental management through programmes such as the Community Enhancement Workers Programme and the National Pathway Workers Project. A whopping $13.6 billion was budgeted for these initiatives, with individual stipends increased from $40,000 to $50,000.
The level of garbage still evident across streets and communities brings that enormous figure into sharp focus. It raises a necessary and uncomfortable question: are these funds achieving their intended outcomes? When $13.6 billion is allocated, yet a mass deployment of citizens is still required to manually clean the nation, something is clearly not right. It suggests a failure. It demands an honest assessment of where the shortcomings lie and who must be held accountable.
In the end, the clean-up exercise of April 11 was less a triumph than a reminder. It showed that when mobilized, our people can rise to the occasion, yes, but it also exposed a broken system. Unless there are more stringent measures in place, the garbage crisis will continue, and citizens, weary of fighting the same battle, will begin to question not their own resolve, but the resolve of those who lead them.
