The Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commence along with the Ministry of Fisheries are undertaking a probe to ascertain the cause of an injury to a man’s foot at the Splashmins Resort, located along the Soesdyke\Linden Highway.
Ravindra Compton believes he was bitten by a piranha and he has raised safety concerns.
Cordel McClure, Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, told Stabroek News that the Ministry has not yet arrived at what approach will be taken on the matter since he explained that another follow up meeting was done on Friday with the resort. McClure said that the Guyana Tourism Authority met last Thursday with a representative from the Splashmins Resort to gain the resort’s perspective on the incident. McClure said a final decision will be taken on the matter to ascertain if there is any intervention that can be taken by his ministry. He also said he had to check to see how the second meeting went with the Resort to determine what happens next.
Stabroek News contacted Compton, who sustained the injury to his foot, and he reported that he spoke to someone from the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commence and was informed that the ministry was in communication with the resort’s representative on the matter. Compton explained that the Ministry assured him, that along with the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Fisheries, an independent investigation will be launched into the cause of the injury.
The injured man told this newspaper that after he [and his family] arrived at the resort they went to a benab close to the water where they spent a few hours and as they were enjoying the atmosphere he felt something bit him. He said immediately after, he saw blood, which left him in shock, since to his knowledge his foot was never touching the ground beneath the water’s surface and so he figured it could not have been a cut that he had sustained.
“We arrived there like after twelve on Monday…me and my family and everything was normal, everybody was in there around the water and so on and then later on while I was there I feel something bite my foot, I know it couldn’t be a cut I get because my foot wasn’t touching the ground, it was in the water yes but it wasn’t touching the ground and I feel something bite my foot and I start see blood… so I tell my family check and when they check they said it was a bite after that everybody started to get scared and panic.” Compton said that although he did not see what bit him, he suspected that it was a piranha as the incisions to his foot was comparable to that of a piranha’s teeth. The injured man went on to say that after the incident, he was immediately brought out of the water by family members who then summoned a female representative from the resort.
“When my family went and call one of them from the resort, a woman come and she just take a piece of bandage and bandage it up and then my family went back to them a little later and they gave them twenty thousand… well I didn’t know they get the money because is they went and talk to them. Is till when I reach the hospital is then I know they give us the money to help with medical attention… they also gave us two numbers to call them back and tell them what happen and they collect our numbers”, he said. “I went to a private institution on the West Coast because that’s where I live, if we had gone to Woodlands where they suggested it would’ve take longer with all the traffic in Georgetown, so we went somewhere closer after it happen,” Compton added.
The following day Compton said that he decided to call the resort to see what else it had to say concerning the incident and a male representative who did not identify himself answered the phone. This person informed him that what had happened was not the company’s responsibility and went on to identify the area where the incident occurred as belonging to the government. “Nobody never call we back to find out anything… is I call them on Tuesday to see what they would say… a guy answer the phone but he didn’t really identify he self… and then he turn and tell me that what happen there is not their responsibility that it’s state land and that if I don’t know that fifty feet from the water is Government reserve.” He added that the representative further informed him that some time ago a jet ski had run into the fence and that might have been how the presumed piranha entered the waters of the resort.
On his Facebook page, Compton questioned the representative’s statement about the area belonging to the government, “… now my point is if it’s state land [then] why do we have to pay to use that area? Why did the resort fence include that area on their property and make people pay to enter…?”
