Dear Editor,

I would like to respond to your piece ‘Time 63 beach opening with Berbice River Bridge – Prashad,’ published in SN June 24, in which Tourism and Commerce Minister Manniram Prashad, “urged the management committee overseeing the upgrading of the Number 63 beach to complete the project in time to coincide with the completion of the Berbice River Bridge.”

This view is forward looking, but it is more associated with a figment of imagination than reality.  The reason for this is really straightforward.  No 63 beach, since I have known it for the past twenty-five years, and more recently, has never been upgraded, save for a few times on national holidays like Easter Monday.
It has been in a pathetic state: dirty and unclean with debris, and garbage scattered all over the place from the main entrance to the actual beach. It is environmentally unsafe and indeed, is an eyesore. A few stands were built and they look good but isolated.

There is one hotel with a restaurant, but it is not opened  regularly because hardly anyone goes there. Particularly troubling is the mantra that if you go there in the day-time try to get out before dark because after that the beach is unsafe. There is no police patrol even occasionally, and if something happens you are on your own. How could anyone promote tourism in such a dismal state?

Yours faithfully,
Lomarsh Roopnarine