Dear Editor,
The Bosai billion dollar investment in Linden is really welcome. It will create lots of jobs with tenured employment for Lindeners and people in Region 10. Nevertheless it represents a small part of the entirety of Linden/R10’‘s economic development potential.
Between 1998 and 2003 a group of top German and some local experts identified the specific region of Guyana most suitable for future development on a sustainable, environmentally sound basis and also suitable for the expansion of the country’s economic base. They were considering the presence and abundance of natural resources, particularly the availability and accessibility of cheap hydropower, mining, stone quarrying, agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, eco-heritage and forest-based tourism and plentiful water.
The geographical area the German group studied and deemed to have the potential for a high level of viable economic development able to sustain the whole of Guyana was a 4,800 km area mainly in Region 10 but also incorporating parts of Regions 3 and 7. This huge area included towns and settlements such as Ituni, Linden, Christianburg, Wismar, Moblissa, Rockstone, Anarika, Wineperu, Sherima, Monkey Jump, Baganara, Bartica, River View, Itabu, Shanklands, Makouria and Lanaballi. (A map of the area was supplied with this letter.)
The study was a collaboration between the Governments of Guyana and Germany and after careful preparation was submitted to the Government of Guyana in January 2003 under the name: ‘The Natural Resources Management Project PN 93.2243.9-03.100.’ I will refer to it hereafter as the NRMP.
I believe, even in the absence of any specific reference in the 60-page document, that a collateral reason and direction of the NRMP was to identify an area suitable for an alternative capital able to absorb and sustain all of Guyana’s 750,000 population, particularly the Georgetown and coastal populations with room for growth. No doubt this search for information and expert guidance was driven by the twin evils of global warming and climate change. We know now that Georgetown has a shelf life and some time in the not too distant future along with the Lower East Coast it will be overrun by the rising Atlantic Ocean. This will occasion the complete or partial destruction not only of homes and businesses, but also of our present coastal agricultural base. It makes development of the Linden/R10 area along the NRMP’s lines an imperative.
What the German report tells us is that Linden can be developed as the hemisphere’s first green, low-carbon city and the hub of an agro-industrial complex with value-added bauxite production as one, but not its only economic plank. The NRMP points the way and should by now have been the subject of much discussion and lobbying for Linden and R10’s economic transformation. Unfortunately the stress on secrecy and non-disclosure of information has all but buried the content and spirit of the German NRMP taking with it the big picture which could easily see Linden and R10 as the new economic powerhouse of this country in 10 to 15 years.
Yet, there are questions that must be asked. More than 85% of the 4,800 km German study area is covered with forest. Presumably government will excise this huge forested land mass from the area it plans to “place under the supervision of an international body for preservation and to ensure compliance with world-class forestry standards once the right market mechanisms to make it economically worthwhile are found. “ No international custodian of Guyana’s forests will allow a single tree to be removed from the NRMP area. And, as it stands roads, farms and townships, etc, cannot be built on greenfield sites without the removal of hundreds if not thousands of trees and some degree of slash and burn activity in the rainforest. Indeed, these are questions a parliamentary opposition could be asking at this juncture rather than await a national disaster and chronic disappointment years down the road.
Apart from the revival of the bauxite industry largely due to Bosai’s timely investment in energy and value-added production, Linden can become an economic centre and a transit point to the hinterland, particularly after the Linden/Lethem/Brazil road is paved and upgraded in the next 5-8 years. As envisaged by the NRMP there should be investments made in the use of bauxite residues to produce cement; in establishing stone crushing facilities at Christianburg; in creating a ceramic industry in Linden and Ituni using abundant kaolin deposits in the area; in the production and promotion of cash crops, particularly fruit for export; in intensive dairy farming; agro industry; aquaculture and tourism.
If only some of these recommendations see the light of day Linden and R10 will become the new economic powerhouse of Guyana. The task is for government to come clean about the NRMP and about Linden/R10’ s true development potential and act on it.
Yours faithfully
F Hamley Case
