Dear Editor,

I feel compelled to pen this letter after reading the concern raised by the Manager of SOL Guyana, Mr Ken Figaro (‘Dead Freight in silted Demerara channel cost SOL millions,‘ SN,  January 31).

It is difficult to understand or believe why a river of such importance as the Demerara, considered one of our main waterways, could be allowed to silt up to such an extent, thereby forcing vessels to carry far less fuel and cargo than their capacity and causing them to lose money as a consequence.

Some years ago, I wrote a letter to the editor of both the Stabroek News and Kaieteur News in which I questioned why the dredge Steve N, built during the Burnham administration and named after then Works Minister Steve Narine, had not been doing any dredging in the Essequibo River to clear the channel between the islands of Hog Island and Wakenaam to allow vessels including the Malali, the only government ferry plying the Parika-Adventure route at that time (now it is Parika-Supenaam) free access to the channel.

Years later the ferry is only able to ply the route during high tide, because at low tide the channel is not passable because of the build-up of sand and silt.

The question is why after all these years, taking into consideration that the entire Region Two and parts of Region Three are totally dependent on this waterway for their goods, produce, hardware items, fuel, lumber and the movement of passengers, no desilting of this channel was done.

It must be noted that by not dredging the channels of our rivers so as to allow the vessels including the ones plying the Parika-Supenaam route to navigate any time whether at high or low tide, the time to do a round trip is increased and so is the cost per trip. We the consumers of this region always have to pay far more than those elsewhere, and the passengers are greatly inconvenienced also.

Those of us who are old enough would recall that prior to 1992 and a little after, there were several navigational aids in the rivers of Guyana, which captains of the various vessels used to be guided by, or benefited from tremendously.

Some senior officials from the ministry or the Minister of Works, need to say why our channels have not been dredged for decades now, and if those navigational aids are no longer beneficial to our captain and seamen or if they are indeed necessary.

Yours faithfully,
Archie W Cordis