The five sleeping giants of West Coast Berbice

Dear Editor,

With erosion by the sea in many parts of West Coast Berbice, the sea dam will have to be rebuilt. In places like Number 42 Village, the old burial ground is in the sea, and the dam will have to be rebuilt more inland.  Some of the more dangerous places are Kingelley, Brahn and Pln Ross, where the sea damaged the defences.  BK Construction Company spent months sealing the breaches.  If the defences should be rebuilt, then Kingelley and Ross burial grounds will have to go into the sea.

There is a mud bank stretching past Lichfield and as far as I can see, it has passed Bush Lot.  What the sea destroyed for the past fifty years, it could build back in a day if the bank gets hard and trees grow on it. Well a part of West Coast Berbice has a chance, but if people want to know what erosion by the sea has done to other parts, they should come and see the five sleeping giants – Belladrum, Lichfield, Kingelley, Pln Ross and Number 29 Village sluices.  The five biggest two-door sluices built during the sixties, now stand lifeless in the sea although they have a solid foundation.  They take all the battering the waves can give, and generations to come might see them in action if the land builds up.

Yours faithfully,
Rudolph Singh