Last Thursday Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo added the subject of the highway sand pits to the varied list of matters he covers at his weekly encounters with the media. He had two important things to say in this regard, the first of which was of a practical character, but the second of which was of a more disturbing nature. Where the first is concerned he announced that no more sand mining licences would be issued on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway: “The Government of Guyana has put a hold on all sand pits on the highway,” he was quoted as saying.
This appeared at first a little puzzling, considering that in his Budget speech earlier this year Finance Minister Ashni Singh had said the government was committed to supporting the sand and stone sector in order for it to keep pace with the rapidly expanding construction industry. He had gone on to say that holdings were being reviewed to ensure supplies could keep up with the increasing demand, and that where extraction had previously been confined to daylight hours, it was now a 24-hour operation.
Giving the statistics for the expansion he had said that in 2023 sand had been extracted at 31 legally operated sites, leading to a production of over 7.8 million tonnes, whereas in 2020 there had only been 18 operations producing less than 700,000 tonnes. Whether most of this came from the highway was not indicated, but somewhat confusingly, perhaps, Mr Jagdeo was quoted last week as saying, “We intend to open up more public sand pits to lower prices. So, we’re not permitting any sand pit at this time. That is the clear position.”
This appears to mean that there will be no more private licences along the highway, but that there might be more publicly owned sand pits, although whether all of them will be sited there was not made explicit. In August last year the Vice President had said that owing to the demand for the exportation of sand to several Caribbean territories the government had decided to open a ‘mammoth’ sand pit in order to maintain its supply chain. Again, there was no indication of where this pit was to be located.
Certainly there has been a dramatic increase in the cost of sand for small-time local construction, possibly because of the high demand for large projects and for export purposes. This has led to bitter complaints from citizens building their own homes, so even with the existence of public pits it remains to be seen whether a reduction in the issuance of private licences would have an impact on the availability of sand for local use. There are currently, it was reported, 200 sand pit licences pending.
There is, however, quite another side to the story, since environmentalists have already raised questions about the vast quantities of sand being mined and whether any work has been done on sustainability. Given the government’s dismissive approach to these kinds of issues which they invariably ignore on account of financial considerations, it can only be said that it seems unlikely.
In addition to that residents on the highway and along the East Bank have been paying a heavy price in terms of the dramatically increased activity on the part of sand pit operators.
In Yarrowkabra, for example, it was reported that the operators had contaminated a spring used for residential water. After government intervention around 60 households in the community were provided with water tanks, although exactly how they were to get water when it didn’t rain was never explained.
The residents also complained about the sand pit operators – five of them ‒ using the community road for trucking purposes, and the level of noise nuisance to which they were subjected. There has also been a chorus of voices in the past about the racket caused by the endless procession of sand trucks along the East Bank road, and the damage they have done to the roadway in communities like Grove-Diamond.
None of these complaints, however, accounts for the recent decision to cease the issuance of highway sand pit licences. Mr Jagdeo was very specific about government thinking in this regard, being quoted as saying: “There are some people who have documents that are not part of the record and are not in this system. We’re trying to get large tracts of land to do the Silica City on the highway. So, we want the land for public use, for housing, and the development of new towns along the highway, etc. So, we can’t wantonly give out.” One might have thought that on this basis it would have severely limited the number of public sand pits too.
What the Vice President added was that people could use the land for agricultural purposes, but not for sand mining, although would-be farmers might be hesitant to take him up on that.
After initial work began on Silica City at the beginning of last year, farmers in the area who held land leases were evicted with little advance notice.
Which brings us to the disturbing information in Mr Jagdeo’s press conference, although it was incidental to what he had to say. It would appear that two of the applicants for sand pit licences had been Police Commissioner (ag) Clifton Hicken and Deputy Police Commissioner Calvin Brutus. The Vice President said that they too would not be granted licences and that they should switch from sand mining to agriculture. We reported that the names of the two police officials had appeared in an Environmental Protection Agency notice with regard to their intention to mine and sell sand, while Mr Jagdeo for his part said he had learnt of their applications through the press.
Why this has not caused more of a public outcry is a mystery. The two most senior police officers in the country becoming businessmen? This is an undeniable form of conflict of interest, and opens the officers concerned to questions about their commitment to the Force and their appalling lack of judgement. At the very least it could place them in a situation where their integrity would come under question. The Vice President suggested they go into agriculture instead, although unless he had a kitchen garden in mind, that would not be any better; they would still be operating as businesspeople in a commercial environment.
Commissioner Hicken has given at best a lacklustre performance in his role as head of the GPF, although this has not, it seems, made any dent in President Irfaan Ali’s confidence in him. But there was the head of state last week emphasising the importance of having a professional force. He can certainly forget about that with his two most senior officers who seem to have making money on their minds as much as the security of the nation.
The President too was at pains to stress that the GPF was tasked with “integrating what we are doing with the regional policing,” and that the country needed to build systems which were of an international standard. Just what does he imagine our regional partners will think of having a police force run by officers who double as businessmen? And since when did that become an international standard? As was pointed out in our editorial on Monday the performance of the Force in some very high-profile cases has been execrable, but given the now declared interest of its two most senior personnel perhaps the nation should not be altogether surprised. Policing work is a demanding and all-consuming job, and anyone who gives it only half his attention will not be able to perform, not to mention the fact that he might find himself in a situation where he is ethically compromised.
President Ali was reported as saying that it was extremely important that a highly professional police force was built, “so that any citizen can go to bed, sleep well that there are institutions in our country that will not falter and disappoint the people of this country.” Messrs Hicken and Brutus have already faltered and disappointed.
