Waste from sacrificed animals affecting neighbours

Dear Editor,

On Friday, October 26, Muslims around the world took part in Qurbani (an act performed to seek Allah’s pleasure) by sacrificing animals keeping one-third for oneself, gifting one-third to friends/family and giving one-third as charity. There are a lot of rules which one has to follow before and after sacrificing an animal, but that is not the purpose of this letter.

Editor, there are two trenches between Uitvlugt and Stewartville separated by a sideline dam, and a lot of people live on the sideline and also on the opposite side of the trenches. On the above mentioned day, I was on one of the bridges that joins the sideline and Uitvlugt with some friends from around the area, when one of them observed the fresh skin of a slaughtered bull on the edge of the trench.

From all indications, it had been pulled out of the trench by a dog and left there.

All the people around, including myself, started to argue about the proper way of disposing of the waste and the rewards for one who did the sacrifices. A little while later we saw a bag floating, and from all indications, it was filled with the guts and more skins, and the mouth of the bag was not tied. That made the group even angrier, because the trenches are not cleared properly, and whatever is floating is bound to reach the grass that covers the trench and get stuck there.

It will takes days before it is moved or some stray animal drags it out and leaves it somewhere, most likely by someone’s yard.

The very next morning I was at the bridge again and what I saw almost made me sick. There were more bags with the skins and guts floating, some underwater, whilst some of the contents had floated out from the bags and had started to smell very bad. One guy came out and started to complain bitterly while he tried to push them away from in front of his area.

He revealed to me that most of what was in the water was from an individual who lived on the sideline. According to him the man kills a few bulls (about six) and dumps the waste in the trench in front of him.

Because the trench is clean where he is living, it is ok for him to dump the waste there because it will not get stuck there, so he has already done his religious work and to hell with everyone else.

I have two daughters (6 and 2 years old) and they might be forced to go and live with their grandparents until the area is cleared, because this is not the first time I have experienced something similar.

Editor, throughout the world the proper disposal of the waste has always been a problem, and in some places there are outbreaks of diarrhoea and typhoid, etc. I am quite sure that there are many like myself in Guyana who are experiencing the same thing, and wonder why the respective Leaders can’t advise people of the proper way to dispose of the waste.

Yours faithfully,
Sahadeo Bates

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