On Monday when the Demerara Harbour Bridge failed, this newspaper interviewed two vendors trapped on the East Bank Demerara with perishable items which they were taking to the West Demerara and East Bank Essequibo to sell. They would have had to decide very quickly to find markets in the city and East Demerara as there was no alternative to get their goods to the west side.
The Georgetown to Vreed-en-Hoop ferry had been abandoned some years ago apparently, leaving people going to the West Demerara and further afield with the choice of the bridge or the water taxis (speedboats). For persons driving to and from the city, who have their own cars, or those moving large amounts of farm and other produce for wholesale and retail including livestock, building and rehabilitating homes on the west side or moving any sort of heavy or bulky material, the bridge was/is their only choice. One can imagine the disruption to lives and livelihoods then if the bridge fails. And this is precisely what happened.
The Demerara Harbour Bridge failed some time before 7 am on Monday and chaos ensued among commuters. Thousands of people who work in the city now own homes on the west side in new housing schemes like Parfaite Harmonie and Tuschen. Hundreds of others choose to live on the West Demerara for economic reasons—rents are cheaper than in Georgetown, the East Bank and East Coast Demerara. The authorities would not have had much time to react to the failure of the bridge as the morning commute would have already started when the incident occurred. But surely 8 hours later, as people wended their way home some sort of system should have been put in place. Instead, the horror of the morning’s pushing and shoving was magnified on both sides of the river, with the police, whose job it was apparently to maintain order, adding to commuters’ frustration by threatening to lock them out of the stelling area.
The Maritime Administration did eventually take a decision on Monday to allow the water taxis to work for 24 hours as long as they had navigational lights installed. But this decision and subsequent announcement via the Government Information Agency (GINA) came too late for the thousands of West Demerara and East Bank Essequibo residents who acted on the knowledge that the water taxis had to stop working by 6 pm and fought to avoid being stranded in the city.
A major blessing for many ‘westsiders’ is the fact that schools are closed for the August holidays and not as many children are travelling. Those caught up in the madness are the ones attending ‘Summer school’ and younger children whose parents have no choice but to bring them to day care facilities in the city.
Meantime, while the bridge was expected to reopen to light traffic yesterday, and facilitated pedestrian traffic on Tuesday, there was no relief for farmers, vendors, builders and truckers. Yesterday it was reported that petrol stations on the west side were running low on fuel supplies, and with as yet no indication as to when the bridge would return to functioning normally, this could be a major issue.
The Demerara Harbour Bridge is 34 years old this month. When it was completed in 1978, it was said that it would have had a 20-year lifespan. Now 14 years after that date has expired, even with the most diligent maintenance, there must be the expectation that things will go wrong. Yet, there is no plan B. Instead, the bridge is now even more traversed than would have been imagined at the time it was built. The government’s housing boom, about which it is extremely proud, has seen thousands of people move to Tuschen, Parfaite Harmonie and other West Demerara areas, increasing traffic on what is now an old bridge, with no plan for replacing or redoing it or even for an alternative crossing method. What Monday’s failure has shown is that the speedboat service is inadequate. The Transport Ministry should now be looking at revamping the stellings and getting ferries ready to be pressed into service. This should be done right away as it is probably unwise to continue to put pressure on the Demerara Harbour Bridge and an alternative for heavy vehicles would be useful.
