The Kaieteur National Park authorities have decided to put temporary restrictions in place at the world famous Kaieteur Falls following a second suicide there in three months.
According to a press release yesterday from the Ministry of Tourism, while the park remains closed preparations are underway to reopen it with restricted access to various points until further notice. The release stated that visitors will no longer be able to access the edge of the falls or the area where Roshanie Phagwah jumped from on Saturday.
While the body has not been found as yet, the pool at the base of the falls is being monitored by a team of Special Forces of the Guyana Defence Force and preparations have started to secure and extract the body once it becomes visible.
Yesterday, at the home of Phagwah, called Trisha, her mother was being consoled by relatives who had gathered. Her mother Indira Ramsundar, along with her aunt Oma Ramsundar who lives with them were in disbelief. “Since yesterday I am watching through the gate to see her walk in and let this feeling go away”, the aunt told Stabroek News.
The deeply anguished mother sat in a chair hugging a dress her daughter wore on Friday and held on to a picture as she wept bitterly over the loss of her only child. Phagwah, who grew up with no father, left home on Saturday morning around 5 AM. “She knock on my room door and said mommy I am coming back around lunch,” the mother said as she spoke briefly to reporters.
Meanwhile, Gobin Harbhajan, a representative of the Prime Minister’s Office visited the deceased’s home yesterday and extended condolences to the mourning family on behalf of the Government, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and the Minister of Tourism Cathy Hughes. Regional Executive Officer of Region 6 Veerasammy Ramayya also visited and extended condolences to the family. Hughes has promised to have a social worker visit the mother to offer counselling.
Neither the mother nor aunt could fathom why Phagwah took her own life. She had taken two weeks of sick leave from work at Guyana Power and Light. “She said she wasn’t feeling well and she took sick leave” the mother said when asked why she stayed home. The mother added that during the two weeks her daughter was her normal self.
The family received the shattering message about her death from a relative who saw it online. Phagwah had been working at the Guyana Power and Light Commercial Branch at New Amsterdam for the past five years as a clerk.
The Ministry of Tourism in its statement said that a team from the Guyana Police Force travelled to Kaieteur National Park yesterday as investigations continued into the suicide. The statement said that “The visitor was part a group that had just finished their tour of the Falls, and was being led back to her aircraft, when she turned and sprinted back towards the Falls, jumping into the gorge. The pool at the base of the Falls is being monitored for signs of the visitor, while preparations have commenced to secure and extract the body, once it becomes visible. This operation will be led by Special Forces of the Guyana Defence Force, due to the dangerous and extremely rugged terrain below the Falls”.
It added: “The Kaieteur National Park remains closed today, but preparations are underway to reopen the Park with restricted access to various points. Specifically, visitors will no longer be able to access the edge of the Falls or the area where the visitor jumped. These restrictions will remain in place until further notice”.
The Ministry said it looks forward to the cooperation of the general public with the new restrictions as it seeks permanent solutions to address this “disturbing trend of misusing the Falls.”
In September this year, Laleta Sivanand disappeared from her Kaieteur Falls tour party. Her body was later found at the base of the falls.
While most of the persons who were close to Phagwah are left without words and explanations as to why the young woman would want to take her life, one of her friends said he was not so surprised. “To be honest, I wasn’t so surprised. When I heard the whole thing circulating around social media that someone had jumped over Kaieteur Falls and she was from Canje, she just jumped to my mind,” the man said. He said that Phagwah would often upload photos on social media with very cryptic and emotional captions that would hint at her suffering from depression. He also said that while he was unaware of any problems she was going through in her life, her ex-boyfriend killed himself some five years ago which she never recovered from.
Just a day before the woman took her life she uploaded a picture to social media with the caption “Having it all & still feeling sad”.
