Dear Editor,
Allow me to congratulate and commend the excellent editorial in yesterday’s Stabroek News titled ‘Depaving Paradise.’ It dealt essentially with the serious environmental challenges related to authorities, local and central, doing great harm to the City by concreting and asphalting parts of Georgetown. The article was timely and I recommend it as compulsory reading for students and adults, the University of Guyana should have it circulated to members of the engineering faculty among others.
Over time, many of us have tried to arrest this dangerous trend, and I repeat, the dangers of concreting or asphalting yards, compounds, etc. But the combination of those in high office at the local and national level seem to have, with few exceptions, the upper hand. I recall three instances, of some businesses attempting to concrete the pavement of parts of Camp Street to facilitate parking. A vigorous effort was able to prevent this debauchery; next an attempt was made to asphalt Parade Ground to facilitate parking. This, too, we were able to stop. I tried to persuade people to grass their yards and compounds wherever feasible.
We should emphasise the point made in the editorial that concrete or asphalted spaces in the City and the contiguous areas prevent the rains from being absorbed and getting into the lower aquifer to recharge that valuable source of water. Fortunately, most of the clay in Georgetown is porous. Give it to both the Dutch and British, they understood the importance of our canals, trenches and waterways and I hope and pray that our decision makers do not continue these actions, for which future generations will not forgive us. Congratulations for the editorial and I hope that someone would listen and heed the voices of reason.
Sincerely,
Hamilton Green
Elder
