Dear Editor,
Before President Jagdeo jumps on his high horse and launches an attack on Prime Minister Thompson for the mistreatment of Guyanese in Barbados, he should put his own house in order.
First, our seven main rivers should be dredged so that top level drainage can be achieved. The seven rivers are the Pomeroon, Essequibo, Demerara, Mahaica, Mahaicony, Abary and Berbice. Mr PQ De Freitas informs me that Demba dredged the Demerara River at McKenzie for bauxite ships by hiring Boscalis, which dredged the canal by throwing up the silt onto the land. They did not shift the silt from one part of the river bed to another. They lifted the silt onto the land. The same needs to be done now. It will deepen the canals and make some contribution to raising low land. This will not solve our below-the-sea level problem, but it will help.
Second, our competent hydraulic engineers should be re-hired to restore the drainage system to the levels of efficiency that previously prevailed. When sluices emptying into the Demerara River were in full cry, the flow of water roared like a waterfall. Now the water moves with the speed of molasses.
Third, we need competent contractors to rebuild the conservancy dams. I have seen drainage and irrigation construction works in the Queenstown, Essequibo area that are horror stories of incompetence and poor professionalism. Incompetence and unprofessionalism, in our management, are the causes of the flight to Barbados. Mr Thompson cannot be blamed for this.
Fourth, the local government system should be reformed so that progressive property taxes can be applied to the extraordinary narcotics wealth that is in evidence in every part of the country. Those tax revenues will enable local governments to hire hydraulic engineers to institute systems of drainage that will be subsidiary to the main national systems. Geographically, this is a big country to manage. The President cannot centralise every geographical area of its management. He has to abandon his controlling mentality.
Georgetown comes to mind in this regard. If a proper drainage system is instituted in Georgetown, the stagnant water will move, people will be able to bury their loved ones once again at the Le Repentir cemetery. Unemployed Africans in Charlestown, Albuoystown and Ruimveldt will be able to combine their energies with efficient composting to produce organically grown vegetables that they can sell overseas even in these depressed times.
There was a time, before the President was born, when city employees used brooms to sweep dry debris from concrete drains in Georgetown. That efficiency in management still applies in Caricom countries like St Kitts. The deterioration of that excellent drainage system is not the result only of the current government’s incompetence. That deterioration began in the regime of the PNC. That, however, does not absolve the administration of the responsibility to restore the drainage standards that prevailed in the colonial days. Mosquitoes will disappear and the health of the citizens will drastically improve.
Fifth, the President should draw down the resources once made available by the Inter-American Development Bank to build the road parallel to the East Bank Road from Mandela Avenue to Timehri. That road was proposed by Mr Burnham and surfaced in the Guyana 21 proposals of Stanley Ming, Eric Phillips and Kads Khan. That will be the first main road in Guyana that will have the possibility of a development hinterland (note the word ‘hinterland’) on both sides of the road.
All of our roads, everyone of them, built by the sweat and blood of the enslaved, are mere duplicates of river transport or sea transport. Development is only possible on one side of the road.
Development along all, let me emphasize, all of our roads is halved because of alignments that are so close to the sea or to the river. Potential for hinterland development on both sides of the road exists on the Wismar-Rockstone Road, the Bartica- Potaro Road, the Lethem Highway, the Upper Demerara Road, the Supenaam-Mazaruni-Cuyuni trail. But that potential will take decades to be developed.
Development along the road parallel to the East Bank road will permit immediate relief to the congestion in Georgetown. Why should Africans have to sleep 12 in a room in South Georgetown? Why should South Georgetown have to continue to be one of the most densely populated areas in the world when Guyana remains an empty country, and when there is empty space that can be developed next door to Georgetown along the Burnham-Stanley Ming-Eric Phillips-Kads Khan Highway?
Development along such a highway will permit the inward development that is always spoken about as necessary for getting away from the below-the-sea-level coastland. Unrealistic proposals envisage shutting down Georgetown and building an alternative capital away from the sea. PPP proposals consider Berbice to be that alternative area.
Development, however, does not result from such unrealism. The more realistic proposal follows gradualism. If we move inwards along this suggested highway, we will shift inwards, gradually and realistically.
These five proposals are necessary for putting Guyana’s house in order and for developing our country. Barbados has put their house in order, for Barbadians. They did not develop Barbados for Guyanese. Barbados has already done its duty by accommodating several waves of Guyanese migrants.
Guyana has accommodated waves of Brazilians and Colombians who are contemptuous of Africans and East Indians and who export Guyana’s wealth to their homeland. Those people have no loyalty to Guyana.
Every one of these five proposals includes space for the development of all the races. There is nothing in these proposals that is exclusively African. But the proposals create space for African development. That is where the President needs to start. It is easy to attack Mr Thompson. It is much harder to put one’s own house in order.
Yours faithfully,
Clarence F. Ellis