Just over a dozen civic groups are calling for a “systematic, inclusive and transparent” consultation process on energy options available to Guyana.
The call, made in response to the announcement of plans for the construction of a natural gas pipeline at Wales and other mega infrastructure projects, came in a joint statement endorsed by Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR); East Coast Clean-Up Committees (ECD7); Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA); Guyana Society for the Blind (GSB); Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD); Guyanese Organisation of Indigenous People (GOIP); Policy Forum Guyana (PFG); The Benab Foundation; Red Thread; Rights of Children (ROC); Silent Walls Mural Project; Transparency International Guyana Inc (TIGI); and Ursuline Sisters in Guyana.
The groups say the proposed gas pipe-line is “eminently unjustifiable” in terms of Guyana’s energy needs, which it summarised as replacement of Bunker-C fuel as the main source of electrical energy. “Justification for the pipeline, therefore, has to rely on providing energy to a range of new industrial projects which as yet have not been identified, much less justified. In the absence of such projects, constructing a gas pipe-line is equivalent to building the run-way before determining whether an airport is feasible,” they argue.