Dear Editor,
When Celina Atlantic Resort was first proposed I wrote a letter that this structure was in defiance of the Sea Defence Act. However, I understand it was President Jagdeo who gave permission to the owners to proceed with construction.
In the 1960s when I was the engineer in charge of the sea defences I was monitoring the area and knew severe erosion was imminent. Approximately 1000 ft of courida trees disappeared overnight. I hurriedly designed and built the first 1000 ft of the new sea wall up to D’Aguiar bend and later a British loan was obtained and the wall was continued by Balfour Beatty up to about UG.
A few years later I raised the old Barama and British concrete copings of the Georgetown wall about 2.5 ft higher, and a new bitumen grouted sea wall was built by local forces under my control when the international bids came in higher above our estimate.
In my opinion this is a very sensitive area and I am calling on the Minister of Infrastructure, Mr Patterson, not only to stop the new construction but also call upon the owners to demolish the existing restaurant and dancehall built illegally. All damage to the existing sea defences should be repaired at the owners’ cost.
Yours faithfully,
Malcolm Alli
