Overwhelmed sea defences a classic example of why we must demand proper institutions to manage our affairs

Dear Editor,

In the November 29 edition of Stabroek News, Mr Joseph Harmon is reported as saying that “the cost of maintaining Guyana’s sea defence is a major drain on Guyana’s resources, as he emphasized a need for policymakers to consider removing important aspects of the country’s public infrastructure to higher ground”. Ouch!! It’s a horrible faux pas to say such a thing, the government will “move important aspects of the country infrastructure to higher ground” now before dem boys say it, I must ask what about the rest of us? He gon leave we pun the coast fuh drown? And how can this same government which is holding up everything to build a fixed bridge across the Demerara River, now be saying that we will have to remove ourselves from the [below sea level] coast. If we will be forced to move from the coast in a few years, why build a fixed bridge across the Demerara River now? Why not just build a floating bridge alongside the current Demerara Harbour Bridge, one for crossing East and one for crossing West until we make a decision as to what our plans are? To either continue to occupy the coast in the face of the problems posed by a rising ocean, or move everything inland.

Floating bridges can be divided up and put anywhere in the future so the pontoons will still continue to be assets to open the interior. But to suddenly, after being in charge of our infrastructure for nearly five years, tell us that they have neglected the sea defences to the extent that nearly 30% of it is falling apart and has to be fixed in the next two years, is not acceptable. That the GPL which also is falling apart and is now short of 23 megawatts because we failed to keep the generators serviced, and is plunging our citizens into daily blackouts comparable to the Burnham era, is not acceptable. If elections was not three months away would they have sought help from CARILEC? Editor the musical chairs they are playing every morning on the East Bank highway from the Harbour Bridge to Houston will have to continue into the foreseeable future. Because they have not built a road running parallel to the East Bank highway connecting the East Coast and East Bank highways to alleviate that horrible congestion on the EBD daily, the situation is not acceptable. It’s driving the citizens of the East Bank & Coast crazy. So one can very easily ask the question, what has their Ministry of Public Infrastructure been doing? Mr. Patterson is frequently seen in the media patting himself on the back for the good work he is doing, well sir this is one citizen who is not satisfied that he did anything but neglect.

But most importantly why is the government apparently not aware that it is unreasonable to state that the high tide levels are rising, without also addressing the low tide levels, are they not also rising? Why aren’t they aware that long before we cannot keep the ocean out, there will be no gravity drainage on the coast through the kokers since the low tide level will become higher than the land level and every drop of rain, all 100 inches a year, will have to be pumped out? Where will the money to do such a thing come from? Also as a matter of record our tide tables is showing no rise in ocean levels, this link https://tides.mobilegeographics.com/calendar/year/2769.html?y= 1976 takes you to a page where you can enter the year you want to investigate and it will tell you, as it told me, that taken as general information there is no difference between the highest tide in 1976 [April 16th 3.25 meters] and the highest tide in 2019

[January 22nd 3.23 meters]. So the Guyana tide tables are not showing any rise in ocean levels, but the ocean levels are rising, by at least 6 inches since 1976, so on what exactly is our tide tables depending on for accuracy?

Also why is the Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency not made aware of the fact that more than 30 years ago, a study was done which was supposed to move the capital and all residents of the Coast from their current location to a carefully chosen spot behind Bartica in the Essequibo-Potaro area. The area is very high, close to hydropower and has far more potential than the current location on the low lying coastal plain for agriculture, industry and manufacturing. The area chosen will be more than 100 feet higher than the current coastal plain, the ocean is not expected to rise to such levels, I studied the investigation by, I believe, the German company which did the investigation to identify the 3,0004,000 square miles needed for the operation.

And as usual in what passes for administration and maintenance in Guyana, our government waits until a major part of the ocean defences in Mahaicony is breached, to wake up now and tell us in effect the tide rose one foot last month, as an excuse for catching them sleeping! I have news for them, it’s been rising since the 70’s. In 1976 I built a koker next to the manager’s house at Versailles on the WBD, the Koker was designed to have a door which the high tides could not rise over. In 2016 I saw this Koker with the high spring tides running over not only the Koker door but the road at Versailles over the rise in the road level over the Koker’s culvert by almost six inches. The ocean has been rising a little at a time for decades, it did not start this year. The Smithsonian says that it has risen between 5-8 inches since 1900. The plan is really simple, let us demand proper institutions to manage our affairs no matter which side is in government, if you have a proper public servant who is discharging his duties competently and fairly without fear which is the intention of our laws, not allowing the Ministers to loot or mismanage the state’s and our assets, who would then care which side is in power? It becomes of secondary importance. But unless we do this even with the oil, we will continue to be a very poorly run country. Yours faithfully,

Tony Vieira