Dear Editor,
It is always a pleasure to encounter on the telephone or in person a public official who responds to your enquiries in courteous, informative and articulate fashion. Such was my recent experience with Ms Yurlander Hughes, the Traffic Manager of Transport & Harbours Department. But what the good lady confirmed to me afforded me no pleasure at all.
I was extremely concerned one year ago, when I stood on the vast and decrepit expanse of what was once our proud Stelling at Vreed-en-Hoop, West Bank Demerara which facilitated a steady flow of vehicles and passengers to and from the capital city to the east. What horrified me then, and moreso now, was an expanding mud flat just outside the stelling which would render the mooring of any vessel alongside quite impossible. It is the confirmation by the Traffic Manager of this physical condition and that there were no plans to dredge the area in the near future that cause me my present depth of concern. I had also been hearing of plans for the use of the structure of the stelling for purposes totally inconsistent with its future use as a facility for ferry boats or boats of any description.
There is, two miles to the south, the Demerara Harbour Bridge, stalwart but frightfully expensive to maintain and now totally indispensable to the lives of thousands who take it for granted as they traverse it in the course of daily communication between east and west Demerara and beyond. Most of the county of Essequibo at some stage will turn up at Parika in full confidence that their transit into the city of Georgetown and beyond is virtually assured, simply because of that reliable structure of 6074 feet in length fondly known and taken for granted as the Harbour Bridge.
And what of the burgeoning housing schemes both governmental and private whose very location and economic cost and whose commercial and domestic comfort are premised upon the eternal availability and structural soundness of the dear old DHB.
Well, it takes some simple navigational error or mishap on the part of a vessel in transit, or as we witnessed the other day, some vehicle on fire or other accident on that bridge to transform the pleasant dream of its eternal availability into a national nightmare of uncertain duration. Imagine the confusion! There is no ferry boat to come to the aid of vehicular traffic. The additional pedestrian commuters must now contend for the limited facilities provided by the private speed-boats.
My amazement arises from the fact that I have never heard of any expressions of concern on the part of government or private sector over the potential imprisonment of all motor-vehicular traffic on both side of the Demerara River – whether in the interest of security, safety, business and domestic endeavour, all attributable to the fact that the only means of access or escape, namely the DHB is out of commission with no facility for the deployment of a ferry boat.
And so, we of civil society remain passively careless of matters crucial to our own well-being, waiting only to wring our hands in infantile complaint over that which government or some authority has done or failed to do. Ought we not to mount a representation or maybe make a noise over this crucial Vreed-en-Hoop ferry-stelling issue?
But then again, in relation to the very DHB which is our virtual salvation, ought we not to caution our own members over the sorry state of indiscipline that daily threatens its availability? I refer mainly to the excessive speed of motor vehicles way beyond the stipulated 32 kph and its deleterious effect on the plates of the roadway whose replacement is one of great inconvenience and tremendous financial outlay. In fact its seriousness may well justify the expense of the deployment of additional bridge-traffic police for the express purpose of curbing speed and preventing overtaking, two activities that are not unrelated.
I have merely disturbed the surface of the problem. But, by the way, isn’t there some Civil Defence Commission which ought to be intensely concerned over this whole issue?
Yours faithfully,
Leon O. Rockcliffe
That mudflat was there since the PNC time therefore the PPP inherited it.
Bismattie, whats wrong with you? It will be more beneficial for you and others like you, to stop involving politics in everything. Here Mr. Rockcliff has made some good points without mentioning anything about politics nor is he blaming any past or present political administration and yet you come up with an unintelligent conclusion. If you have noting to say (like you just did), then just shut up!
If I am not mistaken, the unrestricted expansion of the mudflat started after the Demerara River (in the vicinity of the Vreed-en-Hoop ferry stelling) was dredged (around 1992) to accommodate midstream off loading of bauxite to larger motor vessels. I also think that this project was done without any feasible study but on the recommendation of some individual/individuals with strong political influence. What we witness today, is an outcome of inefficiency in high places with very little hope in sight for correction. I also believe that the situation is irreversible and we have no choice but to live with it…
Note to Bismattie: That pontoon that was placed there for the mooring of the ferry vessel was only put there a few years ago. The ferry moored directly onto the stelling before that. Think about it.
To others: This whole thing seems to be cyclic. Not so long ago, nearly a mile of mud was deposited outside the Crane sea wall where previously it was that hard, fine, black sand. Trees immediately sprouted on this mud and for a while the Crab Bush was extended. This year when I visited I found both mud and trees nearly gone again. My thoughts: A country ahead of the poverty curve might trap these cyclic deposits for a careful land reclamation programme. The Courida and Mangrove stand ready to help if we wish to give it a shot.
The thing is, this was already done twice in the past. The ‘Hymac Trench’ was dug and emptied into the ‘Sea Dam’ to separate Best back yard from Crab Bush. Then the ‘Dragline Trench’ was cut through the Crab Bush (and emptied into another dam that we didn’t bother to name) and lo, we have a huge housing scheme with asphalt roads between back yard and Crab Bush. I say do another trench and dam next time the Atlantic gets generous. The Atlantic wouldn’t care one way or the other.
But then again, this would further encourage us to build on the coast. And we really need to move inland.
Johan, it is cyclic. Has been so since time immemorial and was first noticed in the 1840s. 30-year cycle apparently and I don’t know what can be done to wake the sleeping GoG. Hello, Netherlanders? Hello! Yuh want back yuh colony? Any takers? Anyone with a modicum of Perseverance, Enterprise, Industry, Good Intent, Reliance, [La] Bonne Intention, and sheer Malgre Tout-edness ou there? People who are willing to remake Paradise and Mes Delices, to revitalize Non Pariel, and hope that we can Triumph and Try Best with Hope, Good Hope and Better Hope and Providence and enjoy some Goed Fortuin, Good Success and before Guyana’s Sisters, Brothers and Friends end up in the Belle Vue of Le Repentir?
…. and the mudflat will remain ,, and get larger since no one can stop the Amazon from flowing nor change the flow of the atlantic ocean ,, and lastly the contours of the shores of GUYANA except the Mighty Amazon ! this amazing river beginning in Ucayali ,, the Peruvian Andes and flows east to the atlantic ,, the head waters takes a month to reach the mouth of the river where it empties daily more than 3 million tons of silt each day which is then dispersed on the shores of the GUYANA shield — French Guiana ,, suriname ,, an GUYANA — our shore line being the longest naturaly receives the heaviest load of the silt and mud ,,, what saves F/Guiana and suriname is Cape Orange ,,, hence the burden is on the shores of GUYANA until it reaches the Orinoco river ! where it’s diverted to the beaches of the c’bean islands !….
it’s is why the pnc whose coup de etat is to move the capital to the NW region ,, and the deliberate neglect of maintenance of the infrastructure of the city and the previously annual dredging of the river mouths ! repair of sea defences ,, including the sewer system ! the PPP led govt: would be well advised to have on the drawing board the same such plans since the flow of sediments in the form of sand ,, clay ,,and loam from the Andes to the Atlantic ,,, wellll it’s just not goin to stop !
so there u have it folks i’m not goin to speak for everyone ,, but for myself i’m sure that i will not live to see ,, the berbice bridge pontoons standing on sand banks the kind that has made crab island ! i’m talking abt this century some where around 2050 ,,, the guiana shield is so named to protect the Atlantic from over lappin of salt water inland ,,, not so any more ,, we now have climate change ,, mostly man made ,,and other contributary factors in the equation such as farming [sugarcane] logging ,, mining ,, cattle ,, all making it worse since most of the latter is indiscriminate ! relative to poor or no knowledge of the landscape to which we belong ,, the brazilians are the chief architects of this man made disaster ,,, which in summary is the cost of nat’l development ! at the perils of the people ,,
China’s “3 river gorge dam” the largest after brazil’s Iatapu is the reason for severe climatic change in the whole region that has already shown disastrous consequences in myanmar Taiwan and the Phillipines !!!!!!
Peregrine Falcon above seems to have a better hypothesis than yours about the mudflat in question.
Mudflats. My experience of living in Guyana, always not far from the sea wall, can enlighten this issue.Mudflats are normally seen at low tide.I have noticed mudflats to suddenly occur on some beaches, then be washed away sometime after.I recall travelling by ferry at Vreed en Hoop in the early seventies, and on many occasions year after year,mudflats came and went.A mudflat that remains, is actually a build up of silt.This is possible because of the continental shelf, where the Orinoco Delta discharges and the water flows along the Guyana coast and down the rivers.
… it would “seem” so to u wouldn’t it ? since u know that there is a “sierra” in the Trombetas that arise near the Guyana suriname border ,, that is a “natural wall” by ur topographical knowledge of the Amazon basin ,, for the second largest inundated reservoir of dams in brazil ,, which is the Balbina that is just a few hundred kms south of Konashen ! ah guess u knoe too dat the head waters of the Trombetas arise near the GUYANA/suriname border in the “SERRA ACARAI” and the “SERRA TUMUCUMACQUE”… if this psychological baiting by u to get me to teach u abt the Amazon basin ,, u have failed miserably at ur attempt ,, but what ever i say here is the facts ,, and i’m sharing it with u ,, fuh free ,,
You may not see the Berbice bridge pontoon on sand banks but in the open ocean if nothing is done about the serious erosion problem at the mouth of the river. Almost half a mile of sholeline has already been lost at St Andrew’s Point
On and on just to point out the difficulties in transportation if the DHB is disfunctional. Leon I lived on the WCD. There will be more crabs for the “crab man” to catch with a rising mud flat. LOL. WOW!!!.. ISNM
Ulric, where did you live on the WCD? I lived at Leonora and Den Amstel.
Caesar,WCD resident eh!!! Best Village, emphasis on “BEST”…LOL
…. yo Ulric quit rasin yuh feddahz ,, de onli ting “best” abt bess village is de breeze dat duz blow fuh everi 6 owah ! an dah is all ! gwan suh wid two aringe an guh to de bess haspital !…..
The mudflat / siltation began after the construction of the DHB, previously with two ferries operating between G’town and Vreed en Hoop every hour the agitation created by the propulsion systems did not allow for the acreation of silt.
The problem got worst after the second (Viceroy/Westwind) basin was dredged in 1990 to ship Reynolds / Aroaima bauxite. The first bauxite Transshipment basin / Arrowcane II did not in anyway contributed to the building up of the mudflat.