Writing for the In the Diaspora column in Stabroek News on August 21, 2022, anthropologist Oneka LaBennett cited the condition of “self-devouring growth” that scholar Julie Livingston had applied to the manner of Botswana’s development.
Ms LaBennett, an associate professor at the University of Southern California, had said that Ms Livingston had presented Botswana as a “planetary parable for self-devouring growth, revealing how that country’s successes in diamond mining resulted in the building of schools, roads, hospitals and telecommunications. These infrastructural projects solidified Botswana’s identity as a `paradigmatically successful’ upper-middle-income nation, while also positioning it as a stark example of the convergence of multiple forms of climate and environmental catastrophes, from record-breaking temperatures to sinking water levels and disappearing wildlife”.
There were also incidents of the heavy loss of life following collisions between sand trucks and passenger buses on roads.
What had sparked Ms LaBennett’s concern was her own visit to Guyana and her observation of the traffic crisis along the East Bank Demerara, the extraction of sand and what it portended in the name of development. There were also personal reflections.
She wrote: “Commuters are beholden to massive trucks hauling sand, equipment and commercial goods which routinely bring traffic to a standstill, stymieing hopes of navigating the route along the East Bank to and from the capital.
“Because my family hails from the East Bank, this street has long held a particular role in our lives. It has shaped the realities of generations of women in my family in consequential and deeply damaging ways: My great-grandmother was struck dead along the EBPR (East Bank Public Road) when a motorcyclist suddenly veered off path and collided with her. When she was a toddler, my mother was hit by a truck on the road—an accident that resulted in a fractured skull and months in the hospital. Unfortunately, these personal examples are not unique—residents in the villages that hug the public road continue to struggle to maintain their own and their children’s safety as vehicles inundate the narrow, poorly maintained and historically lawless thoroughfare. Present-day stories of deadly accidents along the avenue abound and residents are still demanding safety measures”.
Ms LaBennett also cited other fallouts from the present insatiable appetite for sand for a variety of construction projects.
“Already, people whose homes flank the EBPR complain that the constant cacophonous boom from the parade of large trucks rattles them in their beds as they try to sleep at night. This is not just a nuisance; it is noise pollution. These very residents find themselves almost entirely disenfran-chised because the commute to the capital and the businesses and services along the road is most times severely impeded”, she wrote.
Ms LaBennett would be unsurprised to know that residents of Yarrowkabra on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway now have to cope with the fouling of their water source and destruction of their roadway by unconscionable sand truck drivers.
During a tour of the area, President Ali was apprised by residents of the problems they were experiencing with the contamination of their water supply. This then led to a visit to the area by the Minister in the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar who met with both residents and the sand pit operators on January 21st.
A release from the Ministry of Public Works said that at that meeting it was decided that approximately 60 households in the community will benefit from water tank distributions. Mr Indar also stated that the sandpit operators will receive official correspondence to warn against the use of the community’s roadway for trucking activities. The Minister added that the indiscriminate use of the roadway will not be tolerated since it was affecting residents
The sand pit operators were urged by the minister to honour their corporate social responsibility to the community by regularly grading the residents’ road and to operate in a manner that reduced the noise nuisance in the community. This is really just a slap on the wrist. The residents of this community should not have to put up with the begriming of their spring water and made to be reliant on tank distributions. An immediate clean-up of the area should have been ordered, the natural water supply restored to residents and the sand pit operators in the area should be fined for their polluting activities.
Further, one would expect that the Environmental Protection Agency would take immediate steps to protect the interests of residents of the area. No community should suffer the indignity of having their longstanding water supply dirtied by the extractives industry and upheaval in their communities. It has, however, become such a common occurrence in the hinterland through gold mining that an inurement prevails. With oil extraction and the attendant construction boom blinding the eyes of those in authority it is likely that many more communities will be at risk of this type of depredation.
One awaits to see how much of the staggering two million metric tonnes of sand needed for the Vreed-en-Hoop Shore Base project will be supplied from terra firma and the impact of such on the environment and the urgent need for conservation of this precious resource. Self-devouring growth is a paradox that demands close examination here.
