Dear Editor,
I had the opportunity to visit Almond Beach which is now threatened by erosion and flooding, with Mr and Mrs Isahak Bashir on a PPP excursion as a teenage boy in the late ʼ60s. About 100 of us travelled from Charity by big sloops and speedboats, and as we entered the mouth of the Pomeroon river the water was really rough. The boats were tossing from side to side, although we managed to make it to Almond Beach without any trouble. We had to walk in the water some distance to get to the long and wide beach. It was my first trip there so I decided to explore it while the other people were having fun dancing to the sweet music. This beach runs from Waini Point to the mouth of the Pomeroon river on the north shore; the entire area runs for miles and there is also Shell Beach. Four of us walked and walked until we were tired; we saw some Amerindians who had settled there on the beach in huts.
There was a long stretch of coconut trees along the beach and inland the Amerindians had planted coffee, cocoa, plantains, bananas and some other crops; these were open to the Atlantic Ocean with no sea or river defence. Lots of fishermen would go to Shell Beach to catch fish, crabs, etc, and sometimes they ended up catching the marine turtles in their nets. I know that one day the beach will be flooded and erosion will take place. The rising sea level will now force the people to occupy higher flat sand lands; the dramatic changes in the weather patterns were noticeable for many years, and what we are now seeing today with the flooding of Georgetown and other parts of the country is just the tip of the iceberg.
While the traditional high tides keep rising, over-running the man-made river and sea defences, the usual farmers’ guidelines which were used to calculate weather patterns have gone haywire. This new government has to go back to the drawing board to work on a strategy to protect the marine turtles and Shell Beach. Farmers in the ʼ60s knew when to cut and burn and plant their new farms: when the night is cold and the river is dark with fog, one can depend on a full day of sunshine; when the corkwood tree blossoms, there will be two months of dry weather; when the acoushi ants begin extensive destruction to plant leaves, it signifies that the rain is coming. Almond Beach has a history of providing a safe place for the turtles and their eggs, but as we can see, now climate change has sent the jaguars roaming in search of food, and they have started to hunt and eat the turtles which are vulnerable. However, the erosion and flood of 2017 showed us all the price we pay for the loss of our coastal beach. Almond Beach provides a habitat for so many different species of animals and plants, and we therefore need to protect it and Shell Beach urgently. Inaction is not an option. But if everyone works together, we can balance this equation.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
